Adobe After EffectsWhat is After Effects? | 00:00 | Adobe After Effects is an application
used by video professionals to create
| | 00:04 | engaging motion graphics
and cinematic visual effects.
| | 00:08 | Video pros use After Effects for 2D and
3D animation purposes, creating dynamic
| | 00:14 | text animation using Robust Typography tools,
| | 00:17 | applying non-destructive effects
to video using various tinting and
| | 00:20 | adjustment methods,
| | 00:22 | isolating objects from their
background using Rotoscoping technology,
| | 00:26 | and correcting for camera
shake by utilizing cutting edge
| | 00:29 | stabilization features.
| | 00:31 | After Effects is an industry standard
for motion graphics and effects, and it
| | 00:35 | allows you to create
visual compositions like these.
| | 00:40 | In addition to its ability to edit,
After Effects also integrates with several
| | 00:43 | other Creative Suite applications,
like Photoshop for animating 3D layers,
| | 00:48 | Premiere Pro with shared effects
and copy and paste support, and Flash
| | 00:52 | Professional for creating
engaging web animation sequences.
| | 00:56 | Adobe After Effects provides video
professionals with a sophisticated animation
| | 01:00 | and compositing environment with
several different effects and tools to help
| | 01:04 | take your video project to the next level.
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IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi! I'm Ian Robinson and I want
to welcome you to After Effects CS6
| | 00:08 | Essential Training.
| | 00:10 | Now, I've been using After Effects
over 15 years to create dynamic motion
| | 00:14 | graphics for broadcast.
| | 00:16 | After Effects is the industry standard for
motion graphics and visual effects artists.
| | 00:20 | I like to call it my Swiss Army
knife for video post-production.
| | 00:24 | In this course, we'll get started by
familiarizing ourselves with the six
| | 00:28 | foundations of After Effects.
| | 00:30 | First, we'll cover compositions, so
you'll understand how to properly start and
| | 00:35 | build your projects.
| | 00:37 | Then, we'll jump into layers where
we'll explore type, blend modes and
| | 00:42 | compositing techniques
like masking and rotoscoping.
| | 00:46 | After that, it's on to animation
where we'll cover the fundamentals of
| | 00:50 | keyframing and more advanced topics
like how to refine your movements with
| | 00:53 | parenting, expressions and the pick whip.
| | 00:57 | Then we'll explore some effects in
order to stylize your projects, and sure
| | 01:01 | enough, we'll follow that up with some time for
lights, camera and action as we jump into 3D.
| | 01:07 | To round out our six foundations, we'll
learn about how to finish your project
| | 01:10 | with rendering, and for you
overachievers out there, we'll definitely keep on
| | 01:15 | going to explore advanced topics like
stabilizing shaky camera footage, 3D type,
| | 01:20 | 3D motion tracking and of course,
the new ray-tracing renderer.
| | 01:24 | So look, I know that learning After
Effects can seem daunting it first, but once
| | 01:29 | you get your feet wet, I think you'll be
surprised how quickly you'll be able to
| | 01:32 | create some compelling and
hopefully fun motion graphics.
| | 01:36 | So let's gets started with After
Effects CS6 Essential Training.
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you're a Premium member of the lynda.com
Online Training Library, or if you're
| | 00:05 | watching this tutorial on a DVD-ROM,
you have access to the exercise files used
| | 00:10 | throughout this title.
| | 00:12 | Now once you've copied the Exercise
Files folder to your hard drive, let's open
| | 00:16 | the folder and see how
our projects are laid out.
| | 00:19 | You should notice there's a folder for
each individual chapter, and within each
| | 00:24 | chapter I have project files that
correspond to the videos of that chapter.
| | 00:30 | Now not every video has a project file,
but the majority of them do and you'll
| | 00:35 | find them within each chapter folder.
| | 00:37 | It's important to understand that this
footage folder at the bottom contains
| | 00:41 | files that the After Effects
projects will be referencing.
| | 00:45 | So don't move these files around.
| | 00:48 | Make sure they stay in
their corresponding folder.
| | 00:51 | Now some of these footage files were
created in external applications but
| | 00:55 | that's okay because these are all
things that are integrated into the
| | 00:58 | After Effects projects.
| | 01:00 | If you are a monthly member or annual
member of lynda.com, you don't have access
| | 01:05 | to the exercise files,
| | 01:07 | but you can follow along from
scratch with your own assets.
| | 01:11 | So let's get started.
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1. Getting StartedThe six foundations of AE| 00:00 | The beauty of After Effects is its
versatility, from motion graphics projects
| | 00:04 | to visual effects in compositing, it
has many different uses and workflows for
| | 00:08 | many different users.
| | 00:10 | But the other beautiful thing about
After Effects is its modular design.
| | 00:14 | Once you learn how each module works,
you'll have the tools you'll need to be
| | 00:18 | able to push yourself and learn new
techniques and effects outside of your
| | 00:22 | normal day-to-day workflow.
| | 00:24 | Now in this video I don't want you to
panic because I am going to cover the
| | 00:28 | interface and where everything lives
later as we move throughout this chapter.
| | 00:32 | Right now, I just want to
cover what the six foundations are,
| | 00:36 | so again, as I start showing you the
interface and all those different elements,
| | 00:40 | you kind of already have a basic
understanding as to how the application works.
| | 00:45 | So to get started, we
want to look at compositions.
| | 00:48 | In the left-hand side of the interface,
you'll see this Project panel and that's
| | 00:52 | where compositions live.
| | 00:53 | Notice when I click on the composition,
it appears up here in the Project panel
| | 00:57 | with a thumbnail and it tells me the actual
dimensions, the length, and the frame rate.
| | 01:02 | So you want to think about
compositions as containers for layers.
| | 01:06 | They're where you will be
building your actual projects.
| | 01:10 | So when you double-click on a
composition in the Project panel, it opens up the
| | 01:15 | Timing panel down here.
| | 01:17 | This is where your timeline is
and these are where your layers are.
| | 01:21 | Notice as I click on each one of
these layers, I'm seeing different elements
| | 01:25 | getting highlighted up
here in the Composition panel.
| | 01:29 | Now these layers, if you're familiar with
Photoshop, work in a very similar fashion.
| | 01:33 | They have a hierarchy and you may even
recognize the eyeballs here on the left
| | 01:37 | that turn on and off the visibility.
| | 01:40 | So layers are the next thing
that we want to actually focus on.
| | 01:44 | They're an integral part of building
any project inside of After Effects.
| | 01:48 | They determine where you actually
create graphic elements, how they look on
| | 01:53 | the screen, their visibility, their
transparency, all kinds of information like that.
| | 01:59 | They also control the timing; exactly when
those elements will appear on the screen.
| | 02:05 | So don't worry, we'll definitely be
diving into layers a little bit more,
| | 02:09 | but next, we need to move on to effects.
| | 02:12 | Effects are the next area we want to
focus on because effects are what you use
| | 02:16 | to kind of stylize your layers.
| | 02:19 | So if I click on layer 2 here,
see this little FX button?
| | 02:24 | That's letting me know that I have an effect.
| | 02:26 | And this triangle here on the left, if I
open that up, you can see I have effects here.
| | 02:31 | So I want to open up those triangles,
and you can see I have a Color Balance
| | 02:35 | effect and a Drop Shadow on there.
| | 02:38 | You can turn on and off the visibility
of those effects just by clicking on each
| | 02:42 | one of the effects here on the left-hand side.
| | 02:45 | Now we're just scratching the surface, but
the next thing we want to check out is 3D.
| | 02:50 | Now a few years ago, I would have
called this more of an optional area to focus
| | 02:54 | on just because it--I
don't know, was relatively new.
| | 02:58 | But honestly now, I can't think of an
After Effects project I have worked on in
| | 03:02 | the last couple of years where I
haven't used 3D in some capacity.
| | 03:07 | So to look at 3D, let's double-click this
composition over here which says 3D Spin.
| | 03:13 | In this comp, I built a project where I
actually have a 3D element in the scene
| | 03:19 | and an interesting element where it's
actually a flat element but it's moving
| | 03:24 | around in three-dimensional space.
| | 03:26 | See how it's spinning in 3D space there?
| | 03:29 | The way I'm moving in the timeline--this
is called my current-time indicator,
| | 03:32 | and I'm just scrubbing through the composition.
| | 03:34 | So you can see, again, to sort of
reinforce, we have layers here that have
| | 03:39 | things like cameras and lights because
these are 3D elements within my layers,
| | 03:44 | within my composition, which is
being shown in my comp window.
| | 03:49 | Now the final thing we
need to focus on, rendering.
| | 03:53 | See once you build all these
projects and you have something that you really
| | 03:56 | like, you need to actually create a
file that you can send or upload to the web,
| | 04:01 | or put in your videos.
| | 04:03 | In order to do that, that's
a process called rendering.
| | 04:07 | So in After Effects, when you're
finished with a composition, just make sure
| | 04:11 | that it's kind of selected down here
in your timeline, and you can go to
| | 04:15 | Composition > Add to Render Queue.
| | 04:18 | When you do that, this area is the area
where you can determine different things
| | 04:23 | like, what kind of file am I going to create?
| | 04:26 | A QuickTime file, a Photoshop Sequence?
| | 04:29 | You get the general idea.
| | 04:30 | This is where we can set things up so
when you're all ready to output your
| | 04:34 | project, you can click Render and go.
| | 04:37 | Now if you're new to After Effects, I'm
sure this was kind of a whirlwind tour.
| | 04:41 | But don't worry, the focus of this video,
again, was just to give you an overview
| | 04:46 | of the entire process and get you
familiar with the core areas we're going to
| | 04:50 | be covering throughout the rest of this course.
| | 04:52 | Right now, we're just laying the
foundation so you have the base knowledge so as
| | 04:57 | we move forward throughout the course,
you'll know exactly where we're going and
| | 05:01 | why we're headed there.
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| Introducing the interface and the workspace| 00:00 | Just imagine how cool it would be if
you could rearrange the living room in
| | 00:03 | your house based on what you
wanted to do at the flip of a switch.
| | 00:07 | If you wanted to play video games on
the Wii, the coffee table and the rug would
| | 00:11 | slide out of the room to be replaced
with a wide open clean hardwood floor. Or
| | 00:16 | for movie night, now the floor is lush
wall-to-wall carpeting and surround sound
| | 00:20 | speakers flip out. Now your couch
is replaced with stadium seating.
| | 00:24 | I know it sounds a little like the
Jetsons but really, that's what Adobe has
| | 00:28 | given us with the ability to make
workspaces inside of After Effects.
| | 00:33 | And as I'm sure many of you know, After
Effects has a myriad of uses from motion
| | 00:37 | graphic design to visual effects,
and each different job usually requires
| | 00:42 | different panels to be available.
| | 00:44 | The first time you start After Effects,
you'll probably see this Welcome window.
| | 00:48 | I just want to kind a point
some things out here really quick.
| | 00:51 | In the window, you could open up recent
projects or open up a project off your
| | 00:56 | hard drive or create a new composition.
| | 01:00 | One thing that I recommend that you do
when you're starting with After Effects,
| | 01:03 | leave this option at the bottom selected.
| | 01:06 | This way every time you launch After
Effects not only will you see this Welcome
| | 01:10 | screen but you'll see a tip of the day.
| | 01:12 | Now since I want to have a blank project
I'm just going to choose Close for right now.
| | 01:18 | And let's look at the interface.
| | 01:21 | Now if your interface doesn't look like
this, what you need to do is go to the
| | 01:26 | upper right-hand corner of your
After Effects window and you'll see this
| | 01:30 | Workspace pulldown.
| | 01:31 | Mine is set to Standard.
| | 01:33 | If you click on that what you want to do
is make sure that yours is set to Standard.
| | 01:37 | And if it is, and it still doesn't match
what we're looking at, what you need to
| | 01:40 | do is actually reset that workspace.
| | 01:43 | So at the bottom here where it says
Reset Standard, click on that and what that
| | 01:47 | does--any changes you may have made to
that layout, this will just blow that away
| | 01:52 | and load it up as though you
had just installed the software.
| | 01:56 | This is really important to pay
attention to as you're following the rest of
| | 01:59 | this course because if you ever notice
that these panels are different, you'll want
| | 02:03 | to go up to the upper right-hand
corner and make sure that we're actually
| | 02:07 | working in the same workspace.
| | 02:10 | To understand the basic workflow of
the interface, we need to learn a little
| | 02:14 | bit about compositions.
| | 02:16 | Now don't worry I'm going to have an
entire video dedicated to this very shortly,
| | 02:20 | but for right now, to make a
composition, you want to start in the upper left
| | 02:24 | corner of the After Effects interface.
| | 02:27 | See in the Project panel, there's this
button in the bottom looks sort of like a
| | 02:30 | film strip with some shapes on it.
| | 02:32 | If you click on that, that will open your
comp settings to create a new composition.
| | 02:37 | Now like I said, this is pretty detailed
so we'll get to this in the next video.
| | 02:42 | For now, let's go ahead and press Cancel.
| | 02:45 | I want to show you the basic circular
workflow that I typically work in, in After Effects.
| | 02:50 | So to do that, let's go up under File
and I'm going to Open Recent Projects and
| | 02:55 | open my 01_02_Workspace project.
| | 02:59 | Once that project is open, you can see
in the Project panel in the upper left
| | 03:04 | corner I have two compositions.
| | 03:07 | I also have folders.
| | 03:09 | See in the Project panel, you can
organize anything that you bring in to After
| | 03:13 | Effects and put them in subfolders.
| | 03:17 | Whenever you double-click a
composition, it will open up the corresponding
| | 03:21 | timeline and Comp panel, so you can
see exactly how the project is built.
| | 03:27 | So just to show you what I'm talking about,
let's double-click this Logo 3D Spin comp.
| | 03:33 | See when I double-click, notice now in
the timeline here I have a whole new
| | 03:37 | timeline, and this specific
project actually has 3D in it.
| | 03:42 | I know that because there's a
camera and there are some lights.
| | 03:45 | Also in the upper right-hand corner of
the comp window, I can see that I have a
| | 03:50 | different renderer
called the Ray-trace Renderer.
| | 03:52 | And don't worry, again, if you're not
understanding exactly what renderers are,
| | 03:56 | we will get to that.
| | 03:58 | Right now just sort of focus on
exactly how this workflow goes.
| | 04:01 | So you want to start in the upper left,
open up your compositions, you can
| | 04:06 | make changes to your Layers panel, and you
will see those things updated in the comp window.
| | 04:13 | You can click on objects directly in the
comp window and reposition them, and it
| | 04:18 | will select to those objects in the
Layers panel, or the Timeline panel because
| | 04:23 | they are directly related.
| | 04:24 | I'm just going to press Command+Z
and undo that last move, and there's one
| | 04:29 | last thing I want to
show you about the interface.
| | 04:32 | Notice as I click on each one these panels,
I'm getting this bright orange outline.
| | 04:38 | That's letting to know that
that panel is active.
| | 04:41 | So sometimes when you go up to these
menus at the top of After Effects, you may
| | 04:46 | not get one of the options that
you're looking for, and that's because these
| | 04:50 | menus will highlight the things that
you can work with based on the specific
| | 04:55 | panel that you have selected.
| | 04:58 | Notice as I click around, I'm getting
slightly different options based on what
| | 05:02 | I have selected in the different menus.
| | 05:06 | Lastly, with workspaces, most of the time
you'll see me working in the Standard
| | 05:10 | workspace but sometimes if you're doing
specific workflows, you want to actually
| | 05:16 | adjust how the panels are set up.
| | 05:18 | So I might switch to the Text setting
to set a bunch of text in my project.
| | 05:24 | So let's click on that and
see what that looks like.
| | 05:27 | So here, notice now I have a Character panel
where I can make adjustments to the typeface,
| | 05:32 | a Paragraph panel where I could adjust
how that type is laid out, and some of
| | 05:36 | the other panels that were
here before are now gone.
| | 05:39 | If you think that you need to actually
customize the interface, there's a pretty
| | 05:43 | easy way of doing that as well.
| | 05:45 | See these little grippy buttons to
the left of any of these panel tabs?
| | 05:51 | These will allow you to grab those
specific panels and move them around.
| | 05:56 | So I want to be a little more
efficient with my Text panels.
| | 05:59 | I'm going to move my Paragraph
panel up into the Character window,
| | 06:05 | and here, notice as I move around,
different areas of that panel are highlighting.
| | 06:11 | And basically what this is telling me
is when I let go of this panel, it will
| | 06:16 | drop into that corresponding space.
| | 06:20 | So look what happens if I drop my
Paragraph panel up here to the top where my
| | 06:24 | Character panel is set.
| | 06:26 | Now it's going to appear
right behind the Character panel.
| | 06:29 | If I clicked on these buttons again
and drag down to let's say Effects, look
| | 06:35 | what happens if I choose this
kind of trapezoid shape at the top.
| | 06:39 | Now it's moved it in between the two panels.
| | 06:42 | The rest of the interface is
kind of sticky. It's really neat.
| | 06:45 | As you move your mouse between all of
the panels, the cursor will adjust based
| | 06:50 | on what you're changing.
| | 06:51 | So see how when I'm in the corner here,
I can click and drag and actually adjust
| | 06:56 | in multiple directions.
| | 06:58 | Also notice how sometimes the panels
will collapse giving you fewer or greater
| | 07:03 | options based on how much
you've dragged on the panels.
| | 07:07 | If this is a setup that you like,
you can go up to Workspace and create a
| | 07:12 | New Workspace, and name it whatever you like, and
then that will populate your Workspace options.
| | 07:18 | Now before we go, I want to change my
Workspace back to Standard and then just
| | 07:23 | to make sure that it's exactly the
same as the default setting, I'm going to
| | 07:27 | go to Reset Standard.
| | 07:29 | And say Yes, and choose to
reset to its original layout.
| | 07:32 | So if there's one thing I want you to
remember out of this specific video,
| | 07:36 | definitely remember the workflow,
but also as you're going throughout the
| | 07:40 | course, make sure to pay attention to
what workspace we're working in, that way
| | 07:45 | you can make sure that your interface
is always going to match exactly what
| | 07:49 | we're doing at that specific point in time.
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| Understanding compositions| 00:00 | I like to think of compositions in
After Effects much like a stage in a theater.
| | 00:05 | It's the place where you set
everything up for your final animation.
| | 00:09 | To create a composition, all you have to
do is go to the Project panel and click
| | 00:13 | on this button down here at the bottom
or go up to the Composition pulldown
| | 00:17 | menu and choose New Composition.
| | 00:20 | In here, we can name our
composition or choose a custom preset.
| | 00:24 | For this course, we're going to be
using the preset DVCPRO HD 23.976.
| | 00:30 | But of course, that's not
going to be quite good enough.
| | 00:33 | I'd like to change things a little bit
more by changing the Width to 1280 and
| | 00:38 | then click on the Pixel Aspect Ratio pulldown
and make sure it's set to Square Pixels.
| | 00:43 | I like working in Square Pixels with
graphics just because I found, for me, it
| | 00:47 | tends to make things a little bit easier.
| | 00:49 | Now just for the sake of ease of use,
I'd like to change my Frame Rate to 24.
| | 00:54 | You can leave yours 23.976 but, like I
said, my comps are going to be built at
| | 00:58 | 24 frames a second.
| | 00:59 | This is a standard frame rate for film.
| | 01:02 | Before we finish, make sure
that Duration is set to 10 seconds.
| | 01:06 | If yours isn't, just highlight the
box and type 1000, and here you'll see
| | 01:12 | you have a base of 10.
| | 01:14 | So when we click OK, we have now
created our first composition that's going to
| | 01:18 | be 1280x720, 10 seconds
long at 24 frames a second.
| | 01:22 | Now I'm seeing that because it's
selected here in my Project panel.
| | 01:26 | When you double-click a composition,
it opens up a tab in the timeline, and
| | 01:32 | shows you the Composition panel here,
which currently since there are no
| | 01:35 | layers in my Comp 1 panel, there are no layers
visible in my Comp window or in the timeline.
| | 01:42 | So let's switch compositions just by
double-clicking the Logo_Animation comp
| | 01:47 | in the Project panel.
| | 01:48 | See when you double-click, it'll bring
that project up to the front and show you
| | 01:53 | everything that's in that specific comp.
| | 01:56 | Like I have said before
compositions are made up of layers.
| | 01:59 | So you can see those in your timeline
but also this window is called the Comp
| | 02:05 | window, and this is where you can see a
graphic representation as to what you're building.
| | 02:10 | You can actually click in this window
and move things around, if you want to
| | 02:14 | kind of move some graphics around.
| | 02:16 | I'm just going to press
Command+Z to undo that.
| | 02:18 | But this is also the place where you
can change things like the magnification.
| | 02:23 | So if you want to make sure a graphic
is sharp, click on the magnification and
| | 02:27 | change it up to 100%.
| | 02:28 | Here you can see my type looks
pretty decent and I'm viewing at
| | 02:33 | 100% magnification.
| | 02:35 | The other thing you want to look at
when you're working with comps is this
| | 02:38 | pulldown here, the Resolution.
| | 02:40 | I'm going to work at Full most of the
time but if you have a slower machine, you
| | 02:44 | might want to set it to Auto and it
will automatically switch back and forth
| | 02:49 | depending upon the resolution that you've set.
| | 02:51 | A lot of times, when you are working
with compositions you may want to actually
| | 02:56 | go back and change a setting.
| | 02:58 | Let's say you created a composition at 10
seconds, and you want to make it 5 seconds.
| | 03:02 | Well to change a composition all you
have to do is select it in the Project
| | 03:06 | panel and go up under the
Composition menu and go to Comp Settings.
| | 03:10 | I use the key command,
Command+K or Ctrl+K on a PC.
| | 03:15 | Now if we wanted to change our
Duration I could just go ahead and change that
| | 03:19 | right now by changing 10 to 05.
| | 03:23 | When I click OK, notice that will now
change the length of my composition.
| | 03:28 | So I notice that first, in my timeline
down here at the bottom, but I could also
| | 03:33 | notice that when I have the composition
selected in the Project panel because it
| | 03:38 | gives me that preview up here at the top.
| | 03:40 | Now probably, at some point, you'll want to
either rename a composition or rename a layer.
| | 03:45 | And it's not quite as simple as you would think.
| | 03:48 | It's not like you can just click on
the name or double-click on the name
| | 03:52 | and have it change.
| | 03:53 | What you need to do is select your
composition and then press Return on your keyboard.
| | 03:58 | Now I could rename this Template
Comp and press Return to set it.
| | 04:04 | Renaming layers works much the same way.
| | 04:07 | Select the layer and press Return and
here I could just call this Vig Blur
| | 04:13 | and press Return.
| | 04:15 | One thing when you're renaming layers
in the timeline, if you click on this
| | 04:21 | button up here, it'll change between the
layer name and the original source name.
| | 04:26 | So if we click back on that, you can
see this is the layer that I've renamed
| | 04:30 | but when I click on it here I can see that
the actual source is named Video_Edit_Pre.
| | 04:36 | If I wanted to find this, I can go open
the Project panel and actually start to type.
| | 04:40 | Hey look, there it is!
| | 04:42 | So you can search for things in your
interface through the Project panel.
| | 04:47 | Now let's clear that out and now we
know how to rename layers, there is one
| | 04:52 | other section of the interface we
need to pay rather close attention to.
| | 04:56 | And it has to do with the
controls of your comp viewer.
| | 04:59 | So we'll start on the left and work our
way to the right and I'll just point out
| | 05:03 | some of the key ones.
| | 05:05 | Obviously, the first one on the left
here will control your magnification.
| | 05:09 | This is the magnification pop-up.
| | 05:11 | Now the next button to the
right looks like crosshairs.
| | 05:14 | Click and hold and notice we
can enable Title/Action Safe.
| | 05:18 | These are settings that we can use
for reference in our composition.
| | 05:22 | If we change our magnification back to
50%, now you can see these lines that
| | 05:27 | pop-up in the screen.
| | 05:28 | These lines will give us rules so we
should keep all text inside of the inside
| | 05:33 | box and all important
graphics inside of the outer box.
| | 05:37 | All right, let's disable Title/Action
Safe, and jump over to this Time button.
| | 05:42 | If you click on this, that will move your
current-time indicator to wherever you select.
| | 05:47 | So let's say I want to move to 4
seconds, I'll type 400 and just press OK and
| | 05:52 | notice now my current time
indicator has moved to 4 seconds.
| | 05:56 | So as you can see, yes the comp
window and the timeline are tied together.
| | 06:01 | This button that looks like red, green
and blue little circles, if you click and
| | 06:06 | hold on that, that will allow you to
view the different channels, much like
| | 06:10 | looking at different
channels inside of Photoshop.
| | 06:13 | Now this pulldown, it says Full.
| | 06:15 | If you click on that, this will set
the resolution of the image that you're
| | 06:20 | looking at in the comp viewer.
| | 06:22 | I like to try and keep this on Auto.
| | 06:24 | The reason being, notice when it's at
50% magnification and I set it to Auto,
| | 06:30 | it switched to half.
| | 06:31 | Now if I hover my mouse over the comp
viewer and scroll up, I'm going to zoom
| | 06:36 | in to the scene and it will automatically
toggle with my magnification to full resolution.
| | 06:43 | The black and white checkered
button right here will toggle visibility.
| | 06:47 | In the Layer panel I want you to
select Layer 2 and click this button right
| | 06:52 | next to the eyeball.
| | 06:54 | This empty switch area, if you click on
that that will solo this layer, so that's
| | 06:58 | the only layer you can see.
| | 07:00 | Now notice in the comp viewer my view changed.
| | 07:03 | So now if we enable this visibility
button you can see, I get the black and
| | 07:08 | white, or gray and white check box to
show me the transparency of my scene.
| | 07:12 | So let's turn off solo for this
one layer and turn off transparency.
| | 07:18 | The next two pulldowns will deal
primarily with viewing 3D compositions.
| | 07:23 | So we will jump into that in the 3D chapter.
| | 07:26 | The last one, I want you to pay really
close attention to in the bottom of your
| | 07:30 | comp viewer is the Fast Preview button.
| | 07:33 | If you click on this, this will
allow you to switch between different
| | 07:37 | resolutions as you're working.
| | 07:38 | One of the ones, I like to
workout most is Adaptive Resolution.
| | 07:43 | This way when I make changes either in
my timeline or my composition window, it
| | 07:48 | will down-res what we're looking at,
just so we could kind of refresh the
| | 07:52 | animation and give us a
preview as to what's going on.
| | 07:56 | If you have your scene at 100%
magnification, and full resolution, a lot of
| | 08:01 | times you're trying to get exact placement
or get a really sharp clear view of things.
| | 08:06 | Sometimes when you're dealing with a 3D
composition, the render time it takes
| | 08:11 | to view that, you may want to click on
this Fast Preview option and change to
| | 08:16 | Fast Draft or a different resolution.
| | 08:18 | Just understand when you switch this
to off, it will redraw the scene at a
| | 08:24 | high render quality.
| | 08:25 | Also understand with that, at higher
render quality it lowers the refresh rate.
| | 08:31 | So sometimes when you're trying to
view an animation, it will take a little
| | 08:35 | while longer to view what's going on in
the scene when you're looking at it at
| | 08:39 | a higher resolution.
| | 08:41 | So now that you understand a little bit
more about compositions, we're going to
| | 08:44 | dive a little more deeply
into layers in our next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Getting comfortable with layers| 00:00 | I know I said this in the previous
video, but I do really believe that layers
| | 00:05 | are the actors that inhabit the
stage which is your composition.
| | 00:09 | So to explore layers more in-depth,
let's open the Type composition.
| | 00:14 | Double-click the Type Comp and make sure
that you have Type down here in your timeline.
| | 00:20 | With the Type tab setup,
you can see I have four layers.
| | 00:25 | And as I click on each one of these layers,
you can see things changing in the comp window.
| | 00:31 | So let's select this Text layer.
| | 00:34 | I want to point out something.
| | 00:35 | When you are selecting layers in the
timeline, it does have an effect as to
| | 00:41 | what you see in the Comp panel but
also when you open the disclosure triangle
| | 00:45 | for those layers, you should notice
different things for each different kind of layer.
| | 00:52 | So for example, with this Text
layer, see I have a text option.
| | 00:55 | And if I open that Text
option, I have Path Options.
| | 00:59 | And I have More Options.
| | 01:01 | Now I'm not going to jump into all the
different text things but if you notice
| | 01:05 | when you're working in the timeline
I can't see any of my other layers.
| | 01:09 | If you end up with the situation like
this, use the scroll wheel on your mouse
| | 01:14 | to scroll up and down and roll
through the different layers in your comp.
| | 01:19 | I'm going to close this triangle for Type
because I want to select this Vignette here.
| | 01:24 | Now you should notice this bright yellow
line that's popped up on my comp window.
| | 01:29 | What this is is a mask.
| | 01:31 | I know the mask is applied to the layer
because I can see it in the comp window.
| | 01:35 | But if for some reason I couldn't, I
could also open up the triangle on the
| | 01:39 | Vignette layer, and you notice
the first option here is Masks.
| | 01:43 | And if I open the Mask options, you
see I have one mask that's applied.
| | 01:48 | Let's close the Vignette
layer and look at Layer 3.
| | 01:52 | In here, notice the icon
looks ridiculously familiar?
| | 01:56 | Well that's because that's the same
icon we used to create our first composition.
| | 02:00 | Now you can have compositions as layers.
| | 02:04 | These are known as pre-compositions.
| | 02:06 | Now it's interesting if you double-
click a pre-composition layer, it will open
| | 02:12 | that other composition.
| | 02:14 | Now this is an interesting point
because as you're learning the interface of
| | 02:18 | After Effects, you may get thrown off
by this, because right here, now I'm in a
| | 02:22 | completely different tab and
the canvas looks different.
| | 02:25 | That's because this a completely separate
composition which contains its own set of layers.
| | 02:32 | Now what's kind of cool about this, any
changes I make in this composition will
| | 02:36 | be updated in the other one.
| | 02:38 | So to show you what I'm talking about,
let's turn off the visibility of the
| | 02:43 | yellow layer by going over
here to the left-hand side.
| | 02:46 | See, layers have these eyeball
icons that determine their visibility.
| | 02:51 | So if you're a Photoshop user
that should be relatively familiar.
| | 02:55 | Now to jump back to the other comp, I'm
just going to look for it right here in
| | 02:59 | the timeline, and click on the Type tab.
| | 03:02 | Now notice that yellow shape
is gone out of this composition.
| | 03:08 | So you can switch rather quickly and
easily in the timeline between different
| | 03:13 | sets of layers, basically different complete
compositions, just by clicking on the tabs.
| | 03:20 | I know we've spent a lot of time in here
looking at some of the different things
| | 03:23 | that layers contain, but if we move
over a little bit further, you should see
| | 03:29 | this Effects option here.
| | 03:31 | What this Effects little icon stands for,
| | 03:34 | it's letting me know that there is an
effect that's applied to this layer.
| | 03:38 | So if we open the triangle for 3,
notice the very first option here is Effects.
| | 03:43 | So if we open that triangle, you can
see I have a Color Balance setting and a
| | 03:48 | Drop Shadow that's been applied.
| | 03:51 | If I want to turn this effect off, I
can just turn it off here on the left-hand
| | 03:55 | side of the timeline.
| | 03:57 | See my Drop Shadow has
disappeared and now it's reappeared.
| | 04:02 | This isn't deleting the effect
completely, it's just telling After Effects that
| | 04:06 | I don't really want to have
this appear in my composition.
| | 04:09 | So let's turn that effect
back on and close Layer 3.
| | 04:13 | There is one other thing I want to
show you other than effects that you
| | 04:16 | can apply to layers.
| | 04:19 | When we select the Type layer here,
notice it has kind of this outer glow.
| | 04:22 | Now I'm going to zoom in to my
canvas using my scroll wheel and press the
| | 04:27 | Spacebar to grab my Hand tool so I
can move up here so you can see this a
| | 04:31 | little more clearly.
| | 04:32 | On the Text layer, if we open up its
triangle, yes we have our Text options,
| | 04:37 | let's go ahead and close that.
| | 04:39 | We also have Transform options
which should look pretty familiar.
| | 04:42 | Let's close that for now.
| | 04:44 | We'll come back to that in a quick second.
| | 04:46 | Let's look at Layer Styles.
| | 04:48 | See Layer Styles are exactly what you
might think they are if you're coming to
| | 04:52 | After Effects from Photoshop.
| | 04:54 | These are the layer styles
that you would have in Photoshop.
| | 04:58 | So if I open this up, you can see I
have an Outer Glow applied and I can
| | 05:02 | turn the visibility off.
| | 05:04 | I also have a very narrow
stroke which is kind of hard to see.
| | 05:08 | But let's turn on the Outer Glow.
| | 05:10 | I can make adjustments to this by
opening its triangle, and then hovering over
| | 05:16 | any of the specific parameter values.
| | 05:19 | And if you click and drag, that will
allow me to drag it up to the right or down
| | 05:25 | to the left and make an
adjustment as to that specific setting.
| | 05:30 | This works with any of the
settings within the timeline.
| | 05:33 | Now let's close the Text layer, and move a
little bit further over to the right here.
| | 05:39 | These switches in this parent section,
if you don't see these in your timeline,
| | 05:45 | you can pop-up any of these options at
any point just by right-clicking right
| | 05:50 | next to the layer name and going to Columns.
| | 05:53 | See Columns are a way of organizing
what you're seeing in your timeline on
| | 05:58 | a horizontal level.
| | 06:00 | So right now, I have Parent and Modes selected.
| | 06:04 | If I don't want to see one of these
options, I can just click on it and it will
| | 06:09 | disappear out of my timeline.
| | 06:11 | Now let's move all the way to the right.
| | 06:12 | I want you to pay attention
to these solid color lines.
| | 06:17 | See, these lines determine exactly
when these objects are going to appear in
| | 06:23 | the composition.
| | 06:24 | Now this little thing right here, the
big yellow guitar pick kind of looking
| | 06:29 | thing, is actually the current-time indicator.
| | 06:32 | So if you click and drag on that, it's
moving the playhead, if you will, to
| | 06:39 | different points in time and that
is allowing me to see the animation.
| | 06:44 | I can trim when a layer begins just by
hovering my mouse over one end or the other.
| | 06:49 | I just happen to be trimming the end
point by clicking on the left side.
| | 06:53 | Now once you hover over, click and
then drag and notice if I drag it past my
| | 06:57 | current-time indicator, I've
trimmed the length of that layer.
| | 07:01 | You can also change where that layer
lives in the timeline by clicking on it and
| | 07:06 | dragging to the left or back to the right.
| | 07:08 | Now look in the upper
right corner of the interface.
| | 07:11 | See that Info window?
| | 07:13 | As I clicked and dragged, it gave me
really important information like when that
| | 07:18 | layer is going to appear and when it's
going to disappear out of my composition.
| | 07:24 | So I hope you've enjoyed this
little tour of layers, and have a better
| | 07:27 | understanding as to how the actors
function on their composition stage.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Getting started with animation and keyframes| 00:00 | Adobe After Effects has become the go-
to industry standard when it comes to
| | 00:04 | creating engaging and interesting animations.
| | 00:07 | And if you want to become a proficient
and talented animator, you'll need to
| | 00:11 | understand and master keyframe animation.
| | 00:14 | Some might say, you need to be
uber-familiar with keyframes.
| | 00:18 | Just remember that a keyframe records
the current state of a parameter at that
| | 00:22 | specific point in time in the timeline.
| | 00:25 | The animation is created when there are
at least two different keyframes applied
| | 00:28 | to that one parameter.
| | 00:30 | So let me show you what I'm talking about.
| | 00:32 | In our project here, notice in the
Project panel if double-click our Animation
| | 00:37 | comp here, we have a composition
that has several different layers.
| | 00:41 | I'm just scrolling up and down on my
mouse to scroll through the layers.
| | 00:45 | Here we have the words of the logo
broken out into pre-compositions, and we can
| | 00:50 | just go ahead and turn those off for
now because we're going to focus on
| | 00:54 | animating these shapes here.
| | 00:56 | So let's actually zoom in on the canvas.
| | 00:57 | I'm going to scroll in on my scroll
wheel up to about 200% and then I'll press
| | 01:03 | the Spacebar to toggle to my Hand
tool here and just kind of move over.
| | 01:07 | And actually now, let's go
back to 100%, there we go.
| | 01:10 | Make sure you position your canvas so
you can see the shapes but also on the
| | 01:15 | left here you can see the edge of the
canvas, because we want to animate this
| | 01:19 | first circle to start from off
screen and scroll right into its position.
| | 01:25 | In order to start animating this,
we should select this layer.
| | 01:28 | I could do this by clicking on the
canvas directly on the object or by going
| | 01:32 | down to Layer 4 and selecting it.
| | 01:35 | When it comes to adding keyframes, you
want to add them to specific parameters.
| | 01:39 | If we open the disclosure triangle
for Layer 4, notice we have all of these
| | 01:44 | different transform properties.
| | 01:46 | Since I know I'm dealing specifically
with position, I'm going to save some real
| | 01:51 | estate here and just press
the letter P on my keyboard.
| | 01:55 | See that way I can still
see all these other layers.
| | 01:58 | That way if we wanted to animate these
other layers, we could easily do that and
| | 02:02 | not have to resize the interface.
| | 02:04 | With this layer selected, I'm going
to show you a little animation trick.
| | 02:08 | Since all of the graphics are actually
already in the position we want them to
| | 02:13 | appear in, we're going to animate backwards.
| | 02:15 | So move your current-time indicator
right here on your timeline on the
| | 02:19 | right-hand side here.
| | 02:20 | If I click and drag, let's
move it to around 2 seconds.
| | 02:24 | I know I'm at 2 seconds because it
actually pop-ups over here on the left
| | 02:28 | side of my timeline.
| | 02:29 | To create the first keyframe, you
want to press the stopwatch next to
| | 02:34 | the Position parameter.
| | 02:35 | I want you to note:
| | 02:36 | The first time you press the stopwatch
is pretty much the only time you want
| | 02:41 | to press the stopwatch when it comes
to setting your keyframes, and I'll
| | 02:44 | explain why in a second.
| | 02:46 | If we go ahead and click the
stopwatch, notice we've added a keyframe.
| | 02:50 | It appears here in the timeline.
| | 02:52 | Now since we already have a keyframe
on this parameter, anytime you move
| | 02:57 | your current-time indicator anywhere
else in the timeline, like let's say
| | 03:01 | back to frame zero here.
| | 03:03 | If I change the position of this object,
by, let's say, going up to the comp and
| | 03:08 | clicking on it and dragging, notice now,
automatically no matter where I drag it
| | 03:13 | I'm getting a couple of
different things happening.
| | 03:15 | First thing you'll see these dots and this line.
| | 03:18 | This is called my Animation Path.
| | 03:20 | Let's drag it over here to the left-hand side.
| | 03:22 | Second thing you'll notice, here
is my keyframe in the timeline.
| | 03:26 | Now I have two keyframes,
and therefore I have animation.
| | 03:30 | Now to preview the animation what you
want to do is press 0 on your keypad.
| | 03:36 | You notice my animation loaded up, and my
current-time indicator is currently moving.
| | 03:42 | I'm going to press the Spacebar to
stop it and I want to show you something.
| | 03:46 | See, by default, whenever you load up
a RAM preview, it's going to preview
| | 03:50 | in your preview range.
| | 03:52 | The preview range is currently set
to 10 seconds which is the length of
| | 03:56 | this whole composition.
| | 03:58 | So let's move our current-time indicator
down to around 3 seconds and press N; N
| | 04:04 | is for the end of your playback range.
| | 04:06 | Now if I press 0 on my keypad, you'll
notice sure enough, it's going to preview
| | 04:12 | only the first 3 seconds of the animation.
| | 04:15 | Again, press the Spacebar to stop playback.
| | 04:18 | If you notice, I'm getting a slight
little drift on this animation because I
| | 04:23 | clicked and dragged and it's
not exactly perfectly straight.
| | 04:28 | And that was because, I just
visually started clicking and dragging.
| | 04:32 | So what I'm going to do is
delete this first keyframe.
| | 04:35 | Now to delete keyframes,
it's pretty straightforward.
| | 04:36 | All you'll do is select individual
keyframe and press Delete on your keyboard.
| | 04:41 | Now you notice since there's only
one keyframe there's no animation.
| | 04:45 | If I scrub in the timeline
you won't see any animation.
| | 04:48 | Let me just Command+Z to undo
that last deleted keyframe.
| | 04:52 | Another way to delete keyframes is to
click on the stopwatch but look what happens.
| | 04:56 | If I click on the stopwatch,
all the keyframes are deleted.
| | 05:00 | Now when you delete all the keyframes,
wherever your current-time indicator is at
| | 05:04 | that point in time, is where
that object is going to stay.
| | 05:08 | So let's just Command+Z, undo that,
and since I only want to delete the first
| | 05:12 | keyframe, I'm just clicking off of
both the keyframes so none of them are
| | 05:16 | highlighted, I'm going to select
the first keyframe and press Delete.
| | 05:20 | If I press Home to move my playhead
back to the beginning of the timeline now
| | 05:25 | instead of clicking and dragging
directly on the object in the canvas, I'm
| | 05:28 | going to click and drag on the X axis parameter.
| | 05:32 | So this is X, this is Y. So now when
it's all the way off the canvas, it's
| | 05:39 | off-screen and the
animation will animate properly.
| | 05:42 | Now there's one last thing I want to show
you about this, it's these little dots here.
| | 05:46 | Notice these dots are all evenly spaced.
| | 05:49 | What these are telling me is the
velocity at which this object is moving.
| | 05:53 | This is spatial interpolation,
which we'll get to in a little bit.
| | 05:56 | But right now, I just wanted you to
note that these little things are here and
| | 06:00 | they're actually showing us something.
| | 06:02 | This is going to move at a constant rate
because this is two linear keyframes in the timeline.
| | 06:08 | I'll get to what linear means and
spatial interpolation, all that stuff in a
| | 06:11 | little bit, but for now
let's preview this animation.
| | 06:15 | Again press 0 on your
keyboard to preview the animation.
| | 06:24 | And press the Spacebar when you're finished.
| | 06:27 | Now that you know how to add keyframes
and delete keyframes, I'm just going to
| | 06:31 | show you some other little quick
commands you can use when you actually start
| | 06:35 | having keyframes in your project.
| | 06:38 | So the first one is navigation.
| | 06:41 | If you want to move back and forth between
keyframes, look on the left side of your timeline.
| | 06:46 | See these arrows?
| | 06:48 | If I click this left arrow here, see how it's
slightly brighter than the one on the right?
| | 06:52 | If I click on that it's going to move
my current-time indicator up towards the
| | 06:56 | beginning of the timeline.
| | 06:57 | Now you notice I can't click anymore
because there are no more keyframes.
| | 07:01 | If I click to the right, now it's
going to move to the next keyframe.
| | 07:04 | You want to be careful when the
current-time indicator isn't on a
| | 07:09 | keyframe because if you click this
button right here in the middle, it
| | 07:13 | adds another keyframe based on what
the current parameter setting is for
| | 07:18 | that specific object.
| | 07:19 | Since we didn't move anything, it's
just the same as this previous keyframe.
| | 07:23 | So I'll just go ahead and delete that.
| | 07:25 | So for navigation, use
the arrows in your timeline.
| | 07:29 | You can also use keyboard shortcuts.
| | 07:31 | K will move you down the timeline
and J moves you up the timeline.
| | 07:36 | One last thing to understand is the uber key.
| | 07:39 | Remember, I said
understanding animation is uber-helpful?
| | 07:43 | Well basically that's because the
uber key, it's what I call it, starts with
| | 07:48 | the letter U, and whenever you select
any layer that has animation on it, if
| | 07:52 | you press the u key, it will toggle the
visibility of any parameter that has animation.
| | 07:58 | Keyframe animation or otherwise, it's
going to show you every parameter that's
| | 08:03 | been animated for that
specific layer that you have selected.
| | 08:07 | I want to stress that keyframing is
most definitely not the only way to make an
| | 08:11 | object move around inside of After Effects.
| | 08:13 | You can use other things like parenting or
expressions but those things are for another time.
| | 08:19 | Right now, you should just focus on
remembering where to look for keyframes in
| | 08:23 | the timeline and remember, understanding
keyframes is uber-helpful when trying
| | 08:27 | to create animation.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding effects| 00:00 | Effects are arguably one of the most fun
features inside of Adobe After Effects.
| | 00:05 | Some of you Photoshop users
might be familiar with filters.
| | 00:08 | Well inside of After Effects, they're
called effects, rather fitting right?
| | 00:13 | In this video, we're going to get
familiar with some pretty common effects
| | 00:16 | you've probably seen before.
| | 00:18 | We'll learn where effects live inside
of After Effects, the basics of applying
| | 00:23 | them, and of course, we'll learn how
to enable and disable your effects to
| | 00:27 | speed up your workflow.
| | 00:29 | Much like keyframes,
effects are applied to layers.
| | 00:32 | Now the first way to see if effects
are applied to a layer, is to look right
| | 00:37 | next to your switches for the Effect Switch.
| | 00:41 | That will toggle your effects on and off.
| | 00:44 | But if you want to apply an effect, you
should select a layer before you go to apply it.
| | 00:50 | Now the easy way to apply an effect
is select the layer, go up under Effects
| | 00:55 | and then choose the effect
that you'd like to apply.
| | 00:58 | So for example, if I want to blur this
background layer, now that I have Video
| | 01:04 | Edit selected, I can go to
Effects > Blur > Fast Blur.
| | 01:10 | Now with the Fast Blur applied, notice
this panel popped up here in the upper left.
| | 01:15 | This is called the Effects Control panel.
| | 01:18 | In here, you can click and drag on a
parameter to make adjustments just like
| | 01:22 | in the Layers panel.
| | 01:24 | So notice when I drag that to 51, my
background video is much more abstract.
| | 01:29 | Now you can also add keyframes to
effects just by clicking on the stopwatch.
| | 01:34 | Let's just add a keyframe to this effect, so
we can see what it looks like in the timeline.
| | 01:39 | Now since I've added my blurriness right
here, I'm going to select Layer 4 in
| | 01:43 | the timeline and press the the U key
to open up any animated parameters, and
| | 01:48 | sure enough, there is my keyframe
on the blurriness for my Fast Blur.
| | 01:53 | To delete an effect, you can select
it in the Layer panel or you can select
| | 01:59 | it in your Effects Control panel; just once
it's selected go ahead and press Delete.
| | 02:04 | Now you notice the effect has
been deleted but my layer has not.
| | 02:08 | So it's very important when you go to
delete the effect, here, let me just
| | 02:11 | Command+Z to undo that.
| | 02:13 | You want to make sure to select the
name of the effect before you press Delete,
| | 02:17 | otherwise, you run the risk of
accidentally deleting the layer.
| | 02:21 | So again, I'm going to click
right on Fast Blur, and press Delete.
| | 02:25 | Now another way to apply an effect is
to go to the Effects & Presets panel.
| | 02:30 | Over here, I can browse through effects.
| | 02:32 | So if I want to blur something, I get to
say B-L-U-R and I get all these options.
| | 02:39 | I'm just scrolling through with
my mouse, to see what's there.
| | 02:42 | And sure enough, we get here and you
can see the Fast Blur is an option.
| | 02:47 | Now this little number here, 32,
that's letting me know this effect will work
| | 02:52 | in 32-bit color space.
| | 02:54 | To apply this, I can drag it up into my
comp window, but a lot of times I like
| | 02:59 | to make sure I know exactly
what layer I'm applying it to.
| | 03:03 | So I'll drag it right down to the
layer itself in the Layers panel.
| | 03:07 | That way when I let go, you
can see I have my effect applied.
| | 03:10 | And again, nothing's happening with
this effect until I click and drag and
| | 03:14 | adjust the parameter up.
| | 03:16 | So now that you understand how to
preview, apply, and delete effects, I think
| | 03:20 | it's safe to say that using effects
can make your creative possibilities a
| | 03:24 | lot more flexible.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Moving in 3D space| 00:00 | Now I feel kind of old admitting this,
but I can clearly remember when After
| | 00:04 | Effects used to only exist in two dimensions.
| | 00:08 | And since then, moving in 3D space
has taken the motion graphics and
| | 00:12 | effects industry by storm.
| | 00:14 | Now it's important to understand
that working in 3D opens not only a whole
| | 00:18 | new host of possibilities for you, it can
also be a little like opening Pandora's Box.
| | 00:24 | Once you learn how to make objects
exist in 3D space, you'll definitely want to
| | 00:29 | learn about cameras.
| | 00:30 | And what fun are cameras
if you don't have lights.
| | 00:33 | And in the virtual world of software,
with lights come material options.
| | 00:37 | And with material options, I think you
can see already, we've jumped down the
| | 00:43 | rabbit hole that's called 3D.
| | 00:45 | Now in this video, we are going to
learn how to turn 2D layers into 3D layers
| | 00:50 | inside of our compositions, but we'll
also learn some of the basics for how to
| | 00:54 | move those objects around in 3D space.
| | 00:57 | And for our own sanity, we're
going to stop there for now.
| | 01:01 | So to get started, open the Type
composition by double-clicking in your Project panel.
| | 01:06 | Make sure it's the Type layer
that's active in your timeline.
| | 01:10 | Now I want you to look in your Switches
panel at this column right here, and if
| | 01:15 | you don't have your Switches panel active,
right-click next to the layer name in
| | 01:19 | Columns and then make sure Switches are enabled.
| | 01:24 | Since I already had it up, when
I clicked that, I disabled it.
| | 01:28 | But you notice when Switches are
disabled, there's a button down here at the
| | 01:33 | bottom of the interface for a
toggle to re-enable your Switches.
| | 01:38 | Now you want to look at the right side of
your Switches right underneath that 3D box.
| | 01:43 | And for layer 1, go ahead and click that box.
| | 01:46 | And now, we've just enabled 3D for layer 1.
| | 01:50 | Now to better see the 3D
capabilities, select the layer.
| | 01:55 | Now you notice in your
canvas, I have control handles.
| | 01:58 | I'll just zoom in on the canvas by
scrolling my mouse wheel and you can see when
| | 02:03 | I hover my mouse over this handle,
that's the X axis, the green handle is the Y
| | 02:08 | axis, and this blue one, you guessed
it, that's Z. If you press P on your
| | 02:14 | keyboard, that will open the
Position data for this layer.
| | 02:18 | And you notice now I have an X
parameter, a Y parameter and a Z parameter.
| | 02:23 | See, if I disable this, you
can see I only have X and Y.
| | 02:28 | Now you might have noticed when 3D
is enabled, that my layer style Outer
| | 02:33 | Glow has been disabled.
| | 02:34 | That's just one of the things that you
have to be aware of when you're switching
| | 02:38 | between 2D and the 3D environment.
| | 02:41 | Now to get back to repositioning this
in 3D space, hover your mouse over one of
| | 02:45 | the axis handles in the viewer.
| | 02:47 | Let's choose X and click and drag.
| | 02:50 | Now notice, no matter where I drag,
this is only going to move on the X axis.
| | 02:55 | This is something that I really
recommend you do when you're first
| | 02:58 | getting started in 3D.
| | 03:00 | Only click on the axis handles here,
I'll click on Y. Notice, that ensures that
| | 03:06 | I'm only moving in one direction.
| | 03:09 | This is important because when you're
in 3D, if you don't click directly on an
| | 03:14 | axis handle and you start to move
around, I am moving this around in 3D space
| | 03:18 | and I'm not exactly sure where I'm doing this.
| | 03:22 | Another thing that's kind of
fun about 3D layers is rotation.
| | 03:26 | So if I click on my Rotation tool and then go
back over my control handles, look what happens.
| | 03:34 | When I hover over the X axis, and click and
drag, it's now going to rotate on the X axis.
| | 03:41 | Same thing with the Y axis.
| | 03:43 | Again, you want to hover until you see
the letters X, Y or Z. I'm going to press
| | 03:49 | P twice, so we can focus on the Position data.
| | 03:52 | And then press V to re-grab our Selection tool.
| | 03:57 | I just wanted to focus on the position
so you can see when we hover our mouse
| | 04:01 | over the Y axis and move up over
this logo here, you notice that this is
| | 04:07 | existing in 3D space, and it did
actually move slightly on the Z parameter, and
| | 04:14 | that's just based on how the layer
was oriented in 3D space when I started
| | 04:19 | moving on the Y axis.
| | 04:20 | But that's not what I want you to focus on.
| | 04:22 | The big reason I want you to focus on
this has to do with how 3D layers and
| | 04:27 | 2D layers interact.
| | 04:29 | See, this 3D layer is
currently the topmost layer.
| | 04:33 | And so you're seeing it in front
of everything else in the scene.
| | 04:37 | But if I grab my logo pre comp and
bring it up to the top of the layer
| | 04:40 | hierarchy, it most definitely is going
to take precedence over top of the 3D
| | 04:45 | layer, even though the 3D layer may
appear to be sticking out into the scene.
| | 04:51 | That's because 2D will always stay 2D
and if it's 2D, then layer hierarchy is
| | 04:57 | what takes priority.
| | 04:59 | Now let's go ahead and bring our
logo comp back down into the scene at the
| | 05:04 | layer 3 position.
| | 05:06 | Okay, now select the type, and
let's move it back down into the scene.
| | 05:11 | And I'm just going to scroll out on my
mouse with the scroll wheel so we can
| | 05:15 | see the entire scene.
| | 05:17 | It's kind of confusing when you're
mixing 3D and 2D layers when you're only
| | 05:22 | looking at the scene from one view.
| | 05:25 | Now I'm not going to dive really
deeply into this, but I do want you to
| | 05:28 | understand that After Effects is capable
of showing you more than one view at a time.
| | 05:34 | In the bottom of our viewer on the right-
hand side, there's a pulldown that says 1 View.
| | 05:39 | If you click on that pulldown, here
you can choose a 2 View or 4 View scene.
| | 05:45 | So let's look at this in 2 Views.
| | 05:48 | In 2 Views, notice I have my
Active Camera and then my Top View.
| | 05:53 | See, I'm not seeing anything else in
my top view because the only layer that
| | 05:57 | exists in 3D space is this one layer here.
| | 06:02 | Now it's interesting within the
multiview, I can select this alternate view
| | 06:08 | over here just by clicking the viewer.
| | 06:11 | And now, I know it's selected because
I have these yellow corners highlighted.
| | 06:16 | Now the reason I'm showing you this, you
can switch what you're seeing in each view.
| | 06:21 | So if I switch to this kind of Custom View,
you can view this sort of from the side.
| | 06:27 | So when I select this layer and
zoom in, see you can see it from a
| | 06:31 | slightly different angle.
| | 06:33 | I know this isn't making much sense
because we don't have another layer in 3D
| | 06:37 | space, so let's just enable 3D
for our background gradient layer.
| | 06:43 | Now here, you can see how this
exists in a completely different 3D space.
| | 06:49 | If we switch back from Custom View to
Top View, here you can see my background
| | 06:54 | layer is right here.
| | 06:55 | Since we're looking at it right over top
and there's no depth, all I'm seeing is
| | 06:59 | a line, but I can also see exactly
where this Type layer is in relation to the
| | 07:04 | background layer within
the three-dimensional space.
| | 07:08 | So last thing, if you get into a
multiview, make sure you select your Active
| | 07:13 | Camera and then go and switch back to
1 View, and then you'll be able to see
| | 07:17 | exactly what you're looking at
before you actually go to render that
| | 07:21 | individual composition.
| | 07:23 | Okay, so now your work has started to take
on a whole new dimension and we didn't
| | 07:28 | manage to completely jumped on the rabbit hole.
| | 07:30 | So between moving layers in the
timeline or directly in the canvas with the
| | 07:35 | control handles, you'll have all you
need to get started working in After
| | 07:39 | Effects in all three dimensions.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Rendering your first animation| 00:00 | If you're new to animation, you might not be
familiar with the terms render or rendering.
| | 00:06 | I like to think of the word
render as a fancy word for output.
| | 00:10 | See, when you complete a project
inside of After Effects, it's just that,
| | 00:15 | inside of After Effects.
| | 00:17 | Most of the time, you'll want to create
some kind of self-contained file outside
| | 00:21 | of After Effects, so you can watch
it later like in a QuickTime Player or
| | 00:26 | Windows Media Player.
| | 00:28 | It's important to note that After
Effects can create all kinds of files.
| | 00:32 | They don't always have to be video files.
| | 00:35 | You can create still files
like JPEG or Photoshop documents.
| | 00:39 | In this video, I'll show you how to
render your composition at full resolution.
| | 00:44 | To get started, let's make sure we
have our Logo_Animation composition open.
| | 00:50 | When you go to create a render, you
want to make sure that you have the
| | 00:53 | composition open that you're going to render.
| | 00:55 | It seems pretty straight forward, right?
| | 00:57 | Now the next thing you want to pay
attention to is the playback range.
| | 01:02 | See, when you scrub through a project
or you're working on specific sections,
| | 01:08 | you may have hit N to shorten your
playback range so you would have a quick
| | 01:13 | preview in your RAM Preview.
| | 01:16 | But when you actually go to render
this, After Effects will default to
| | 01:20 | rendering the work area.
| | 01:22 | So a lot of times, if you just want
to output the extended comp, there is a
| | 01:26 | switch for that, that you can change,
but I like to just sort of be aware of the
| | 01:30 | work area before I create my movie.
| | 01:32 | A quick way of dealing with that, if
you press End on your keyboard, that
| | 01:37 | will automatically move your playhead
to the end of the timeline as long as
| | 01:41 | the timeline is active;
| | 01:43 | see with this yellow line.
| | 01:45 | Now after pressing End on the keyboard,
I can press N to reset my out point
| | 01:50 | of my playback range.
| | 01:51 | Now when I'm ready to make my movie,
I can go up to Composition and choose
| | 01:55 | Add to Render Queue.
| | 01:57 | That will pop up the Render Queue.
| | 01:59 | The default location for the Render
Queue is down here in the timeline area.
| | 02:04 | I personally like to move
it up into the comp area.
| | 02:08 | So I'm just going to click and drag
on these little grippy dots right here.
| | 02:12 | If you click and drag up, I'm going
to drag up and tell I get this dark
| | 02:17 | purple line at the top.
| | 02:19 | Now when I let go, you can see my
Render Queue is dead center right in the
| | 02:23 | middle of my composition.
| | 02:25 | I can go to my Render
Settings to set up my configuration.
| | 02:29 | First thing, if you want to render
something full resolution, Best Setting is
| | 02:33 | probably the best way to leave it.
| | 02:35 | I like clicking on the words for
Best Setting, so you can see everything
| | 02:39 | like I'm going to render it at the Best
Quality at Full Resolution at the size 1280x720.
| | 02:45 | Remember what I said about the
Preview Range or the Work Area Duration?
| | 02:50 | This is where that would pop up.
| | 02:53 | And in the pulldown menu here, notice
under Time Span, it's set to default
| | 02:59 | to the Work Area Only.
| | 03:00 | Now since we reset the work area for
the entire length of the comp, notice it's
| | 03:05 | going to start here and end at 09:23,
giving us the full 10 seconds of duration.
| | 03:11 | You can choose to render a specific area
just by clicking the Custom button, and
| | 03:16 | this is where you can tell it, you know,
I only want to render 5 seconds or 3
| | 03:19 | seconds, or what have you.
| | 03:20 | I'm just going to press Cancel because I do
want to render the full thing at Full Quality.
| | 03:26 | When I click OK, my Render Settings
are set for the size, and how long of a
| | 03:33 | clip I'm going to make.
| | 03:34 | The Output Module will help me determine
exactly what kind of file I'm going to create.
| | 03:40 | If I click this pulldown button here, you
notice I have a bunch of Presets that I could use.
| | 03:46 | When you first get started, I recommend
not using those Presets, but literally
| | 03:50 | just clicking on the word Lossless,
because then, I can make some adjustments
| | 03:55 | under the Output Module.
| | 03:56 | So my default, since
I'm on a Mac, is QuickTime.
| | 04:00 | But, if you click on that, you could
choose any of the other options like
| | 04:04 | a Photoshop Sequence, or a TIFF
Sequence, or H.264 if you're trying to
| | 04:09 | create a really tiny file.
| | 04:11 | I'll just click off of that window,
leave it set to QuickTime, and in the
| | 04:15 | Video Output section, this button
right here for Format Options, this allows
| | 04:21 | me to specify the codec.
| | 04:22 | I'm going to click that button, and
probably leave it the Animation codec.
| | 04:28 | I like using Animation because that is
a full resolution lossless compression.
| | 04:33 | And especially when you're dealing with
motion graphics, it's important that you
| | 04:37 | don't compress or over-compress your animation.
| | 04:41 | You can click on the Animation
pulldown and choose any of these other codecs.
| | 04:46 | Another good choice are these Avid DNxHD Codecs.
| | 04:51 | And finally, for you Apple folks, the
Apple ProRes codec is pretty decent as well.
| | 04:56 | But I recommend leaving it
Animation, and leaving the settings at 100%
| | 05:02 | Quality, and clicking OK.
| | 05:04 | If we had audio in our project, this
is where we could select audio for the
| | 05:08 | output, but since we don't,
I'll just leave that deselected.
| | 05:11 | When we click OK, we're
actually ready to render our project.
| | 05:17 | But let's look at where this file
is going to be created on my computer.
| | 05:21 | Click on the words Logo_Animation, and
here, this is where I can specify exactly
| | 05:27 | what I want to name the
QuickTime file I'm now creating.
| | 05:30 | I'll leave it set for Logo_Animation,
but just add _FullRes to the end of it,
| | 05:38 | and notice where it's
actually going to save the file.
| | 05:41 | Now typically when I work, I have another
folder that I use to save my video files in.
| | 05:47 | So for now, I'm just going to render right
to the Desktop, and click Save. All right,
| | 05:52 | now there's one more thing I want to
mention before we hit Render, and that has
| | 05:56 | to do with the Animation codec.
| | 05:59 | Typically, when you render graphics,
you want to use something that's
| | 06:02 | uncompressed and that's why
I chose the Animation codec.
| | 06:06 | It is a lossless compression, so it
is compressed but it won't degrade the
| | 06:11 | quality as I mentioned earlier.
| | 06:13 | But it also creates
extraordinarily large files.
| | 06:16 | So if you don't have a particularly
fast hard-drive or a lot of RAM on your
| | 06:20 | computer, you may not be able to play
back the Animation QuickTimes at full
| | 06:25 | resolution off your hard-drive,
again because it's fully uncompressed.
| | 06:30 | If you just want to preview or share
your QuickTime with somebody else to see, I
| | 06:35 | recommend maybe rendering in H.264 video.
| | 06:38 | Again, we rendered Animation because if
I were to send this to a video editor, I
| | 06:43 | would want it to come in at as
high quality as possible. All right,
| | 06:47 | now we're ready to go ahead and hit Render.
| | 06:51 | Now when you click Render, you'll get
a preview as to how long it's taking up
| | 06:55 | here in the top with the
progress bar that's loading.
| | 06:59 | Now there's one other thing, when your
project is rendering, you can expand the
| | 07:03 | Current Render triangle here, and
see exactly what's rendering when.
| | 07:08 | That way, if you notice something is
hanging up as it's rendering, you can
| | 07:12 | actually go back and look at that
specific thing and see if you can make an
| | 07:16 | adjustment so it renders faster.
| | 07:18 | But as you can see right now, this is
working perfectly fine, so I'm going to
| | 07:23 | leave it alone and let it finish its render.
| | 07:28 | Now that that's rendered, I just
want to tell you one more thing.
| | 07:31 | The RAM Preview in After Effects is
awesome, and the new caching system for CS6
| | 07:37 | is nothing short of a huge leap forwards.
| | 07:40 | But don't be afraid to step away from
the desk and get comfortable with rendering.
| | 07:44 | I mean sometimes, when you render a
project, it's going to take a little while.
| | 07:48 | So I seem to find that a short break
and a cup of coffee is the perfect way
| | 07:53 | to shake things up and unlock your creativity
while you're waiting for things to render.
| | 07:58 | All right, well now that our render has finished,
let's go to the Desktop and watch our QuickTime.
| | 08:05 | I'll make this full screen and press the
Spacebar, so you can see the fruits of our labor.
| | 08:12 | (video playing)
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Specifying preferences and cache settings| 00:00 | If you've ever used someone's
computer who hasn't had their cache and
| | 00:03 | preferences set up properly, I'm sure
you already understand just how important
| | 00:08 | those settings can be.
| | 00:09 | Trying to use After Effects without
considering how your system is set up can
| | 00:13 | often be a rather trying experience.
| | 00:15 | So let's save ourselves the
headache and check out some key preferences
| | 00:19 | and cache settings.
| | 00:20 | On the Mac, to get to Preferences, you
just click on the word After Effects in
| | 00:24 | the upper-left corner of your interface.
| | 00:27 | On the PC, you want to go to the Edit
menu and go down and choose Preferences.
| | 00:31 | So I'm going to go back and choose
my preferences, and we'll start with
| | 00:35 | the General section.
| | 00:37 | In the General Preferences, you can
change the Levels of Undo, although I
| | 00:41 | recommend just leaving it at 32.
| | 00:44 | Show Tool Tips is a great thing that
you can leave enabled when you're first
| | 00:47 | getting started within After Effects.
| | 00:50 | See, let me just click OK to
show you what Tool Tips do.
| | 00:53 | When you hover over any part of the
interface, after a certain amount of time
| | 00:57 | of not moving your mouse, you'll get
a tip that pops up, tells you what the
| | 01:01 | specific thing is that you're hovered over,
and it will give you a key command shortcut.
| | 01:06 | So let's jump back into our Preferences,
and move out of the General section.
| | 01:11 | We can just click Next, and look at Previews.
| | 01:14 | Now the Preview section, let's
click on the GPU Information button.
| | 01:20 | In here, you can actually accelerate
the processing of graphics processing
| | 01:25 | within After Effects by
enabling GPU ray-tracing.
| | 01:29 | Now understand that the devices that
are required to enable this require a CUDA
| | 01:34 | driver, and those graphics
cards are NVIDIA graphics cards.
| | 01:39 | Now since this system doesn't have an
NVIDIA card, I cannot enable that option.
| | 01:44 | If you wanted to make an adjustment
to the Texture Memory, you can, just to
| | 01:48 | understand that you should never make
this more than 80% of the value of the
| | 01:53 | total amount of memory that
you have on your graphics card.
| | 01:57 | Now let's click OK, and
jump to the Import section.
| | 02:00 | In here, there is a setting for Still Footage.
| | 02:03 | When you import a still image, by default,
it will set up the length of the composition.
| | 02:08 | But if you want to specify a length
for a still image, you could enable this
| | 02:12 | option and change the length, so any
time you import a still, it's that length.
| | 02:19 | Let's go to Labels.
| | 02:20 | In the Labels section, notice you
can change the label for each different
| | 02:25 | part of the interface;
| | 02:26 | how videos are labeled or audio.
| | 02:29 | Just understand, when you click on
these pulldowns and choose the different
| | 02:32 | options, the colors that actually
correspond are labeled down here.
| | 02:36 | So if you wanted Sea Foam to be a
different color, you would come down to this
| | 02:39 | drop well, click in it, and change the color.
| | 02:42 | I'm just going to click Cancel
because I like the default settings.
| | 02:46 | So I'll leave it like that.
| | 02:48 | The Media & Disk Cache section is arguably
the most important section in your Preferences.
| | 02:54 | The first thing you want
to enable is Disk Cache.
| | 02:57 | If you have a fast external drive
that's separate from the drive that you're
| | 03:01 | actually using After Effects on,
you want to choose that folder.
| | 03:06 | If After Effects is acting a little
squirrely, you want to empty the Disk Cache.
| | 03:10 | Also, there is an option
for Conformed Media Cache.
| | 03:14 | As you're working in your project,
After Effects will sometimes create some
| | 03:18 | extra media cache files that it will
reference to make using After Effects
| | 03:22 | a little bit faster.
| | 03:23 | Typically, when I enable a folder for
my Disk Cache, I also change my Media
| | 03:29 | Cache folder to the same location.
| | 03:32 | And the same general rule applies if
After Effects starts acting a little funny,
| | 03:36 | after I empty my Disk Cache, occasionally,
I'll empty my Database Cache as well.
| | 03:43 | Now let's go to Video Preview.
| | 03:45 | If you had an external monitor or more
than one monitor on your system, this is
| | 03:49 | where you could choose the other
device to output the video signals.
| | 03:53 | So as you're working in After Effects,
anything in your comp viewer would be
| | 03:57 | mirrored in that external monitor.
| | 03:59 | The Appearance section is fun.
| | 04:01 | The only thing I change in here
is the brightness of the interface.
| | 04:05 | If you want the interface to be really
dark, you can drag it to the left, or
| | 04:08 | really bright, you could drag it to the right.
| | 04:11 | Let's click Default to make sure we're
set at the default settings. Auto-Save;
| | 04:16 | if you enable this, just understand,
any time After Effects goes to save a
| | 04:20 | project, it may take a second to save that file.
| | 04:23 | So try not to save it too often,
otherwise I've found it just interferes
| | 04:27 | with your workflow.
| | 04:29 | Memory & Multiprocessing is
another great area inside of After Effects.
| | 04:34 | If you notice, RAM is shared between
all of these different applications in
| | 04:38 | the Creative Suite.
| | 04:39 | As a general rule, you should always
reserve at least a little bit of RAM for
| | 04:44 | other applications, especially if you
have it open for like email or browsing
| | 04:48 | the web or something like that.
| | 04:50 | After Effects Multiprocessing; lets
enable Render Multi-frames Simultaneously.
| | 04:55 | This really takes advantage of multi
core systems and as you can tell, the
| | 05:00 | system I'm working on has 16 core processors.
| | 05:04 | You should also make sure you at
least have one CPU reserved for other
| | 05:08 | applications, so as you're working, After
Effects doesn't try and take over the entire system.
| | 05:13 | So now if you want to optimize the
settings for After Effects for your
| | 05:17 | specific system, you may want to just click OK,
and go to the help section of After Effects.
| | 05:24 | Under the Help menu, if you go to After
Effects Help, in there you can type in
| | 05:29 | the search field, improve performance.
| | 05:31 | And in that section, you'll see plenty
of tips on how to set up your system with
| | 05:35 | its own individual optimum settings, and
that way, you can have your preferences
| | 05:40 | and your system set up exactly the way you want.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Staying organized| 00:00 | If you're at all like me, being
creative doesn't always directly translate into
| | 00:04 | being the most organized person.
| | 00:06 | In fact, some of the most talented
artists I know have to constantly battle
| | 00:10 | organization on a daily basis.
| | 00:13 | Well I'm here to tell you that if I can
become organized, any of you can become
| | 00:18 | organized, especially when it comes
to working with Adobe After Effects.
| | 00:22 | Now if you navigate in your Exercise Files
folder, under Ch_01, you should see this folder;
| | 00:28 | this 01_10_Project_Template folder.
| | 00:32 | This is named this just
for this individual course.
| | 00:35 | But I wanted to show you how I
typically organize folders based on my
| | 00:41 | workflow in motion graphics.
| | 00:43 | Now what you name these individual
folders will kind of be customized based on
| | 00:49 | your individual workflow, but I want to
show you how I organize things and the
| | 00:54 | theory, why I organize things.
| | 00:57 | So first thing, After Effects by
itself references external files.
| | 01:03 | So while you can create a lot of
things within After Effects, like text, and
| | 01:08 | gradients, and shapes, and all kinds of
fun new 3D things in CS6, well also
| | 01:15 | you can import your layered Photoshop
documents, layered Illustrator files,
| | 01:20 | video files, et cetera.
| | 01:22 | So a lot of times, as you're working
through a project, you'll have to pull in
| | 01:27 | these external files, and work with them.
| | 01:29 | Now when you're finished with After
Effects, there is a method for archiving to
| | 01:33 | collect everything and put it in one folder.
| | 01:36 | But I found when I start a project,
if I keep things organized, it just
| | 01:40 | makes life a lot easier.
| | 01:41 | So my basic structure, since most of my
life is centered around After Effects,
| | 01:46 | the very first folder I'll
create is this 01_AE_Projects folder.
| | 01:52 | See, I do this because After
Effects is number one for me.
| | 01:56 | Now I will bounce things back and
forth between Premiere and After Effects a
| | 02:00 | lot of times because Premiere
has amazing editing features.
| | 02:05 | Anytime I have video footage that I work
with, I'll put it in the Footage folder.
| | 02:10 | You could call this video footage as
well, especially with digital video files,
| | 02:16 | when you're not shooting on tape,
it's really important to have those files
| | 02:20 | organized in a specific
folder structure as well.
| | 02:23 | So a lot of times if I know I'm going
to use those for a project, I'll drop
| | 02:26 | them into the Footage folder.
| | 02:28 | Now if you have an external drive,
I would create a similar structure to
| | 02:32 | where I would save my media cache,
and all that other stuff, but if you're
| | 02:36 | only working off one drive, you could create
another folder in here just for your cache.
| | 02:41 | Again, I always recommend saving your
cache on a separate drive, but that's
| | 02:44 | neither here nor there.
| | 02:46 | Now this Layered_Files folder is
important because this is what I would use to
| | 02:51 | save my layered Photoshop
documents and my layered Illustrator files.
| | 02:56 | I tend to save those
separately for my flat images;
| | 02:59 | flat images being like still photos that I
may have taken with like a digital camera.
| | 03:04 | I save those separately just because the
layered files I like to import with all
| | 03:08 | their layers intact.
| | 03:10 | So I'll keep that organized accordingly.
| | 03:13 | Now, Working_Files is an interesting folder.
| | 03:15 | A lot of times, especially if you're
kind of noodling with creative ideas, you
| | 03:20 | may not necessarily want to import
those directly into After Effects, you
| | 03:23 | probably just want to create some working files.
| | 03:26 | So you can have that one Photoshop
document with 150 layers in it, and know that
| | 03:32 | you're not going to be
animating all those layers.
| | 03:34 | So I'd save those in Working_Files.
| | 03:35 | Then when I'm ready to actually import
it into After Effects, I would save them
| | 03:39 | into my Layered_Files folder with
all the extemporaneous layers deleted.
| | 03:44 | Now this last folder, Client_Reference,
this is really important if you are
| | 03:48 | working with another client or an
art director or something like that.
| | 03:53 | If they give you any reference images
whatsoever in email, or a lot of times, PDF
| | 03:58 | files, JPEG images if they are like, hey!
| | 04:01 | I want this to look like this;
| | 04:03 | it's important to save that with your
project especially if you're doing like a
| | 04:06 | meeting or something and they're going,
well, you designed this, but it doesn't
| | 04:10 | really look quite like it. You can go, Oh!
| | 04:12 | Really?
| | 04:12 | Well this is what you sent me,
and jump right to that folder.
| | 04:16 | So, all in all, this is how
I like to organize things.
| | 04:20 | I encourage you to create your own
folder structure based on your workflow and
| | 04:25 | what you think works best for you.
| | 04:27 | Now, one last tip, if you take this
folder, and in the Mac OS, you can
| | 04:31 | right-click and choose Compress to
create a zip file, on Windows, you could use
| | 04:35 | something like WinZip.
| | 04:37 | But basically, when you zip that folder,
that you could use as your starting
| | 04:41 | point for any new projects.
| | 04:43 | And the nice thing when you zip it, it
will uncompress the folder and still keep
| | 04:49 | the original zipped file as well.
| | 04:52 | So any time I start a new project, I
just go to the folder and unzip a new
| | 04:56 | folder, and rename this, whatever it
is the project that I'm working on.
| | 05:01 | So for those of you who needed just
that little extra push to keep things
| | 05:06 | straight, now hopefully you have a nice
little workflow you can use to keep all
| | 05:10 | your After Effects projects
organized all nice and tidy.
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|
|
2. Understanding CompositionsCreating compositions| 00:00 | If you like having choices, you'll like
creating compositions inside of After Effects.
| | 00:05 | There are really no right or wrong ways
to creating comps, it's just a matter of
| | 00:09 | choosing what's right for your workflow.
| | 00:11 | I know I've already showed you how to
create a comp just by clicking this Comp
| | 00:15 | button in the bottom of the
Project panel, you can also come up under
| | 00:18 | Composition and say New Composition.
| | 00:20 | So let's start here and look a little
more closely at the Composition Settings.
| | 00:26 | In the Basic Tab, the first thing you
always want to start with are your Presets.
| | 00:30 | So click on that pulldown and you'll
notice we have some Web Presets if you
| | 00:34 | want to create some web graphics, and
then standard definition video settings,
| | 00:39 | high definition video settings, and look at
this down here, film settings. It's pretty cool!
| | 00:45 | Obviously, you can choose any one of
these presets and customize accordingly.
| | 00:49 | So I know we did this in the previous
video about comps and layers, so I'm not
| | 00:54 | going to do this right now.
| | 00:55 | But just understand, when you
start creating compositions, you want to
| | 01:00 | make sure that you're starting at the proper
resolution before you create your graphics.
| | 01:05 | So I'll just click outside of that pulldown menu,
so we can look at some of the other options.
| | 01:10 | If you need to create a specific size,
let's say for a live action event where
| | 01:17 | they're using graphics that aren't
traditional broadcast sizes, let's say your
| | 01:22 | client goes, yeah, that display is 2,000
pixels wide and it's 16x9. Well you can
| | 01:27 | lock your Aspect Ratio
and then just choose 2,000.
| | 01:31 | And notice, it will automatically
change the Height to match accordingly.
| | 01:37 | You can obviously also
change your Pixel Aspect Ratio.
| | 01:40 | This is a great way if you're dealing
with something that's standard definition
| | 01:45 | like a down-res of a high definition clip.
| | 01:48 | You can choose one of these other
options based on exactly what you're creating.
| | 01:53 | The Frame Rate is kind of interesting.
| | 01:55 | After Effects does not tie your
keyframes specifically to an individual frame
| | 02:01 | kind of the same way Flash does.
| | 02:03 | I can choose whatever frame rate I want
because the keyframes are tied to points in time.
| | 02:08 | So when the keyframe is at 1 second, if I
render it at 30 frames, it's on frame 30.
| | 02:13 | If I render it at 24 frames, it's on frame 24.
| | 02:17 | Start Timecode is a really
nice feature if you're working on
| | 02:21 | long-form graphics.
| | 02:22 | A lot of times, producers or editors
will enjoy having graphics that have a
| | 02:28 | Start Timecode of whatever matches
the project that you're working on.
| | 02:33 | So for example, a lot of times when
people shoot for long form, they'll shoot
| | 02:38 | different hours for different
reels depending upon what it is.
| | 02:42 | So for example, if I know I'm creating
a graphic that starts in the second hour
| | 02:47 | of that composition, I'll just say, Okay,
2 hours, and just keep hitting 0 until
| | 02:53 | I get to the 2 hour mark.
| | 02:55 | And then, any time I create a
composition, instead of it starting at 0, it's
| | 02:59 | going to start at 02:00:00.
| | 03:02 | Now the background color is kind of important.
| | 03:05 | If you want to have a different
background color for your composition, by
| | 03:09 | all means, you can.
| | 03:10 | Just click in here and choose a different color.
| | 03:14 | Most of the time if I want to have a
different color, it's because I'm trying to
| | 03:18 | make sure that I've cut out something
properly for compositing, and I want to
| | 03:22 | make sure there's no
extra noise in the background.
| | 03:24 | You'll see me do this a
little bit later in the course.
| | 03:27 | Let's click Cancel for now
and jump to the Advanced Tab.
| | 03:30 | I want you to pay
attention to the Renderer here.
| | 03:33 | Ours is set to Ray-traced 3D and
that's because the last time we created a
| | 03:37 | composition, it was set to
create a Ray-traced 3D renderer.
| | 03:41 | Yours may say Classic 3D.
| | 03:43 | Now I'm going to kind of juggle around
with some of the things in here to get
| | 03:47 | this one menu that pops up.
| | 03:49 | But let me explain Ray-
traced and Classic really quickly.
| | 03:53 | Think of Classic 3D as the Advanced
Renderer in the previous version of After Effects.
| | 03:57 | Basically, if you're working in a 2.5D
project, you can probably use Classic 3D,
| | 04:02 | and be perfectly happy.
| | 04:04 | Ray-traced 3D gives you the
ability of a full-fledged 3D application.
| | 04:09 | You can have full 3D objects with
reflections and refraction, and the whole
| | 04:13 | bunch of other things that we'll
be getting into a little later.
| | 04:16 | For now, I'm going to change my
comp to Classic 3D and click OK.
| | 04:20 | Just so I can show you what I'm
talking about, with Comp 1 selected, I'm
| | 04:25 | going to press Command+K to reopen its Comp
Settings, and jump back to the Advanced Tab.
| | 04:31 | See, anytime you want to edit the
settings for a composition, you can always
| | 04:35 | press Command+K with the comp
selected and open that comp up.
| | 04:39 | If we change the Renderer from Classic
to Ray-traced 3D, when we click OK, you
| | 04:44 | may see this window that pops
up and it's an alert window.
| | 04:48 | It's really important when you first
start using After Effects CS6 to pay
| | 04:51 | attention to this because basically
this outlines exactly what features the
| | 04:57 | Ray-traced 3D renderer enables and
what features are not rendered by the
| | 05:03 | Ray-traced 3D renderer.
| | 05:05 | As you're first getting started within
After Effects, I do recommend leaving
| | 05:09 | this set up Once Per Session.
| | 05:12 | Basically, that way, anytime you re-
launch After Effects and you create a new
| | 05:15 | comp and switch between the renderers,
you'll get this alert that pops up.
| | 05:20 | But if you select Never
Again, you won't ever see this.
| | 05:24 | So I'm going to leave this set up to
Once Per Session, and then click OK.
| | 05:29 | Now that we've edited our blank
composition, let's jump over to the Type comp.
| | 05:34 | This composition was actually created
by importing an Illustrator document
| | 05:39 | with all of its layers.
| | 05:41 | I'll show you how to do that in the
next video, and later on there's an entire
| | 05:45 | chapter where we'll talk about exactly
what translates from what application and
| | 05:50 | how to properly prepare Illustrator, and
Photoshop documents for layered import.
| | 05:55 | For now, I just wanted you to
understand that you can create those
| | 05:58 | compositions on import.
| | 06:00 | Another way of creating compositions,
and this is one of my favorites, is to
| | 06:04 | actually duplicate a
previously existing composition.
| | 06:08 | So for example, let's say we wanted to
have bumpers, like a graphic that pops up
| | 06:14 | at the end of a segment, and for each
bumper, I wanted to have a different
| | 06:18 | message pop up here.
| | 06:20 | Well I could render this first version
where it says Turning Light into Energy,
| | 06:24 | but rather than creating a whole new
composition or re-importing Illustrator, it
| | 06:28 | makes a lot more sense to just select
the Type composition and press Command+D
| | 06:33 | on the Mac, or Ctrl+D on
the PC, and duplicate it.
| | 06:37 | Now when I double-click the second Type Layer,
I can double-click on the T and change this.
| | 06:46 | So now, I could render this version and
this version, and we've created multiple
| | 06:52 | comps just by doing a simple duplicate command.
| | 06:55 | Now even though I've shown you some
basics on how to create compositions, what
| | 06:59 | I want you to really understand is
how After Effects is designed around the
| | 07:03 | theory of workflows.
| | 07:04 | Whether you're starting from scratch, or
saving time by creating variations on a
| | 07:09 | theme, the multiple ways of creating
compositions in After Effects will become
| | 07:13 | second nature, and more importantly,
they'll be centered around the way you work
| | 07:17 | in your specific workflow.
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| Importing footage and compositions| 00:00 | What does it mean to import a comp?
| | 00:02 | Well I know you might be thinking
that doesn't sound right because comps are
| | 00:06 | created from inside of After Effects, right?
| | 00:10 | Well actually, you can create
comps as a part of the import process.
| | 00:14 | And when you work with compositions,
you'll undoubtedly want to add some footage.
| | 00:18 | After Effects does a pretty good job
of guessing the proper settings for each
| | 00:21 | piece of footage imported, but sometimes
you'll want or need to change those as well.
| | 00:27 | So let's get started by
importing an Illustrator file.
| | 00:30 | One of the great things about After
Effects is the fact that it integrates
| | 00:33 | so well with other application files in the
Creative Suite, like Photoshop and Illustrator.
| | 00:39 | So if you go up under File and go
down to Import, we can go to File.
| | 00:45 | Now navigate through your browser.
| | 00:48 | I'll navigate to my Footage folder in my
Exercise Files folder, in there I have
| | 00:53 | a folder for Illustrator.
| | 00:55 | So if we navigate in there, select
the kineteco_02 Illustrator file.
| | 01:00 | Now at the bottom, see where this pops
-up and it says Enable All Acceptable
| | 01:04 | Files, leave that at its default.
| | 01:07 | But down here where it says Import As
Footage, what we want to do is import as
| | 01:12 | Composition - Retain Layer Sizes.
| | 01:14 | Now, we'll cover the Retain
Layer Size setting in the next video.
| | 01:18 | When you select Open, now you notice
we've actually created a comp, and that comp
| | 01:24 | is based on the
Illustrator file that we imported.
| | 01:28 | If we double-click this comp, I
want you to check out something.
| | 01:32 | First thing, it's only two frames long.
| | 01:34 | Well that's definitely not right.
| | 01:37 | So I'm going to look at what happened
here and you'll notice I have this funny
| | 01:42 | icon that looks like little
things stacked on top of each other.
| | 01:45 | And that's because you can actually
import still images as image sequences.
| | 01:50 | So I'm going to press Command+Z to
undo that import and go back up under File
| | 01:56 | and choose Import > File.
| | 01:59 | Navigate through your folders to your
Illustrator folder and choose kineteco_02,
| | 02:06 | choose Import As Composition -
Retain Layer Sizes, but deselect this
| | 02:10 | Illustrator/PDF/EPS Sequence.
| | 02:14 | Now when we import this, it's going to
import properly at 10 seconds duration
| | 02:20 | and the 24 frame, frame rate
we've been using up to this point.
| | 02:24 | So if we double-click our composition,
you can see all of the layers from the
| | 02:28 | Illustrator document have
imported and they are in our composition.
| | 02:33 | Now the beautiful thing about this,
it maintained the transparency of the
| | 02:37 | Illustrator document.
| | 02:38 | So if you want to see the
transparency in the bottom of your Comp panel, go
| | 02:42 | ahead and click this button right
here that looks like a checkerboard.
| | 02:45 | If you click on that, that will
allow you to see the transparency.
| | 02:48 | So you remember when we're creating comps,
you could change the background color.
| | 02:53 | This might be one of those
instances where you want to have a slightly
| | 02:56 | different background color.
| | 02:57 | I personally like working on black,
so I'm just going to leave that alone.
| | 03:01 | While we imported this file as a
composition, I do want to go ahead and import
| | 03:07 | some video for the background, right?
| | 03:09 | So let's import the video.
| | 03:11 | Instead of going up to File and Import,
just double-click anywhere in this
| | 03:16 | section of the Project panel.
| | 03:18 | When I double-click, it will open up
the Import File dialog window and we can
| | 03:23 | navigate back to our Footage folder,
and under Video, let's open that up and
| | 03:28 | choose the Solar_panels_CU movie.
| | 03:32 | Notice it's been correctly identified as a
QuickTime, and we will import this as Footage.
| | 03:38 | What's interesting is you can import as
an entirely different project, but let's
| | 03:43 | just leave it for Footage for now.
| | 03:45 | So when we click Open, notice now the
video file has been imported into my
| | 03:51 | After Effects project.
| | 03:52 | So if we want to use this as background
video for our project we can do a couple
| | 03:57 | of different things.
| | 03:59 | First thing, if you double-click a video
file, notice how it opens up in its own
| | 04:04 | layer window in the comp window.
| | 04:06 | This is kind of cool because we can
preview our video just by pressing the Spacebar.
| | 04:11 | And in the upper right corner of the
Info window, you want to watch and see
| | 04:15 | exactly how fast it's playing back.
| | 04:17 | So you can see in this example, it's
only playing back--well now it's up to
| | 04:23 | real-time, but you see it
kind of bounces back and forth.
| | 04:26 | So if you press the Spacebar and
stop playback, notice our current time
| | 04:31 | indicator has moved.
| | 04:33 | If you click this little button that
looks like a left bracket in the bottom of
| | 04:36 | the comp window, that will
automatically trim the start point of that video to
| | 04:42 | start where your current-time indicator is.
| | 04:44 | Now we can press the Spacebar again to
select more of the video time or I could
| | 04:50 | stop playback and click this little
button down here and choose a specific time.
| | 04:56 | Now if I'm not sure exactly what time
I want to choose but I know I want to
| | 05:00 | add, let's say, another four seconds to
this, I could type +400 and when I click
| | 05:06 | OK, it will move four seconds down the timeline.
| | 05:10 | So now, if I click on this Outpoint
button, I've now trimmed this before I've
| | 05:15 | ever added it to my project.
| | 05:17 | This is a really, really helpful
feature when you're trying to integrate video
| | 05:21 | into smaller-linked projects because
if you look up in the Project panel, you
| | 05:26 | can see this clip is over a minute,
but our comp is only 10 seconds.
| | 05:31 | So now, if I want to add this to my
comp, since my current-time indicator is
| | 05:36 | already at zero seconds, I can just
drop it in right on top of all the other
| | 05:40 | ones as another layer by
clicking this button on the right.
| | 05:45 | Now you can see my video clip has been
added to my composition on the topmost
| | 05:50 | layer, and you can see at
its outpoint it disappears.
| | 05:54 | Now obviously, I can extend this
outpoint by clicking on the right-hand side and
| | 05:59 | dragging to the end of the comp, and I
can use the layer hierarchy by moving it
| | 06:04 | back to the bottom of my Composition window.
| | 06:07 | Now there's one more thing I want to
show you about importing video footage and
| | 06:11 | that has to do with how the
footage is being interpreted.
| | 06:15 | Now occasionally, you may notice that your
video is not playing back exactly properly.
| | 06:20 | Well that's because sometimes After
Effects will interpret the video as
| | 06:25 | something that it's not.
| | 06:26 | Like it might choose the wrong
frame rate or an improper field order.
| | 06:30 | So to change that, with your footage
selected, just go ahead and Ctrl+Click on
| | 06:35 | the Mac, or right-click and go to
Interpret Footage > Main.
| | 06:40 | In here, I have options that I could change.
| | 06:44 | Say, for example, I wanted to play this
back at, I don't know, 12 frames a second.
| | 06:50 | I could tell it conform to this frame rate.
| | 06:52 | And it will give me a warning about my
audio, but since I'm not worried about
| | 06:56 | audio I don't have to
worry about that right now.
| | 06:59 | You can also do interesting things like
use the Start Timecode from the footage.
| | 07:04 | And here under Fields and Pulldown,
this is where you can choose whether it's
| | 07:08 | Lower Field First or Upper Field First.
| | 07:10 | Now this really only
pertains to interlaced video footage.
| | 07:14 | Down at the bottom here, if the Pixel Aspect
Ratio is off, this is where you can change that.
| | 07:21 | I'm going to accept these changes
by just pressing Enter on my keypad.
| | 07:25 | Now had I changed the frame rate or
something else, it would be listed up here
| | 07:30 | in the Project panel.
| | 07:32 | So now that we've imported a layered
Illustrator file as a composition and added
| | 07:37 | some footage, in the next video we are
going to jump into another option that I
| | 07:42 | use quite often, which will allow us to
kind of bounce back and forth and change
| | 07:46 | that piece of footage in its own
external source, while still allowing it to
| | 07:51 | update back inside of After Effects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Preparing compositions for animation| 00:00 | I know you've heard me say this a lot,
but honestly, this is kind of one of my
| | 00:03 | favorite things about working in After
Effects, the ability to import external
| | 00:08 | files as compositions is
extraordinarily wonderful.
| | 00:11 | But inevitably, you'll probably want
to be able to bounce back and forth and
| | 00:16 | make changes and have them
update between both applications.
| | 00:20 | Since, in the previous video we
imported a layered Illustrator document, this
| | 00:25 | time I want to import a
layered Photoshop document.
| | 00:28 | So double-click in the Project panel
and navigate in your Exercise Files folder
| | 00:33 | to the Footage folder, and in
there, go inside of Photoshop.
| | 00:37 | Click once on Eco_Shapes and then make
sure that Import As is set to Composition.
| | 00:44 | See last time we chose
Composition - Retain Layer Sizes.
| | 00:48 | I want to import as a
composition just for an example right now.
| | 00:52 | So when we choose Composition, click Open.
| | 00:56 | Under this menu that pops-up, we
still have a choice under Import Kind.
| | 01:01 | If we change our mind between
Composition or Footage, if I choose Footage I
| | 01:05 | could choose an individual layer or
merge all the layers together as one file.
| | 01:10 | But what we want to do is leave
it for Composition and we can leave
| | 01:14 | Editable Layer Styles.
| | 01:16 | And when we click OK, this is
going to get imported into our project.
| | 01:21 | If we double-click our Eco_Shapes here,
you can see I have a green layer and I
| | 01:26 | have an orange-yellow layer.
| | 01:30 | If I want to use these in this project,
I could drag the comp down as a whole.
| | 01:35 | That would be nice because when I drag
it down as a whole, you can see exactly
| | 01:41 | what things are looking like.
| | 01:42 | That looks pretty neat, but
unfortunately, if I wanted to animate this bar and
| | 01:47 | that bar separately, what I would need
to do is open up the Eco_Shapes comp and
| | 01:53 | then animate these within this comp.
| | 01:56 | And what I really want to do is
use both shapes inside of here.
| | 02:00 | So we can do this one of two ways.
| | 02:03 | We can go up under Eco_Shapes layers
here and you can see I've got my actual
| | 02:07 | layers or I can just come in to my Eco_
Shapes layers in the timeline and drag a
| | 02:14 | lasso around both layers.
| | 02:16 | With both layers selected, if I go up
under Edit > Copy, when I bring
| | 02:21 | them into the other comp, I
can choose Edit > Paste.
| | 02:24 | Now notice they copied right in place.
| | 02:28 | If I select the Eco_Shapes comp layer,
Layer 4, I can press Delete and now I
| | 02:34 | have each layer separately.
| | 02:36 | But there's an issue. See, I did bring
these in as separate layers, if I turn off
| | 02:42 | the visibility of one or the other,
you can see, but when I select the Green
| | 02:48 | layer, look in the center of your comp window.
| | 02:51 | This cross here, here I'll scroll in
with my mouse, this is my anchor point.
| | 02:57 | So if I opened up, let's say the
Rotation parameter for Green by pressing R on
| | 03:02 | my keyboard, I could click and
scrub through that parameter.
| | 03:05 | Look at what's happening. Here,
let me zoom back out.
| | 03:07 | Notice the rotation is actually going
to rotate around the center of the layer
| | 03:13 | and the layer itself is
actually the size of the comp.
| | 03:16 | See, if I undo my rotations here,
Command+Z or Ctrl+Z on the PC, you see that
| | 03:23 | I've got my layer here and it's actually the
entire size of the composition. Let me scroll out.
| | 03:29 | See the handles there?
| | 03:31 | That happened because we imported this
Photoshop document as a composition, not a
| | 03:36 | composition while retaining layer sizes.
| | 03:39 | So just to start over, I want to go
ahead and select our Eco_Shapes layers and
| | 03:45 | drag them to the Trash
right here on my Project panel.
| | 03:48 | When I press Delete, I
still have my Eco_Shapes comp.
| | 03:50 | I can drag it out to the Trash as well.
| | 03:53 | Instead, let's double-click in our
Project panel and import that PSD as a
| | 03:59 | Composition - Retaining Layer Sizes.
| | 04:02 | Now when we click Open, again, we'll
leave the Import Kind set and leave
| | 04:07 | Editable Layer Styles.
| | 04:09 | When we click OK, you can see if we open our
comp, we have both layers and they are separate.
| | 04:15 | But notice now when I select each one
of these layers, here let me open up my
| | 04:20 | Rotation, I can actually control
where the animation takes place, and by
| | 04:24 | default, it will be
centered on each individual layer.
| | 04:28 | Let's undo that rotation.
| | 04:30 | I'm going to collapse layer 1 and
select both layers and Copy and Paste.
| | 04:37 | Notice when I did Copy/Paste, it actually
put the layers in place within my comp window.
| | 04:43 | I know you're thinking this is pretty cool.
| | 04:44 | I've imported these layers and I can
animate them separately and my anchor
| | 04:49 | point is set up properly.
| | 04:50 | But what if I want my anchor point to
be on, I don't know, the left-hand side?
| | 04:55 | Well you want to use the Pan Behind tool,
which is up in your Tool panel in the
| | 04:59 | upper left part of the interface.
| | 05:02 | See this icon to the right of the
little camera? That's your Pan Behind tool.
| | 05:06 | If you click on that, then you can
click on the anchor point for this
| | 05:11 | orange-yellow layer, and if I drag it
to the left, now when I choose Rotation
| | 05:17 | and click and drag, you can see
it's rotating around that point.
| | 05:21 | Let's just undo that.
| | 05:23 | This is also very helpful if I
wanted to do a Scale Option here.
| | 05:27 | I could unlink the X and Y parameters
and just click and drag on the X, and
| | 05:33 | look, I can make it grow
out of the side of the screen.
| | 05:36 | That's pretty cool, right?
| | 05:38 | Well what if you needed to go back into
Photoshop for some reason to make a change?
| | 05:42 | Let's say I want to change the edge of
this layer but I don't necessarily want
| | 05:47 | to add a mask to this
layer inside of After Effects.
| | 05:50 | Well you can quickly jump back and
forth between After Effects and Photoshop or
| | 05:56 | Illustrator or whatever file you've
imported, just by right-clicking on the
| | 06:00 | layer within the timeline.
| | 06:02 | Then choose Reveal Layer Source in Project.
| | 06:06 | That will automatically bring that
layer to the front of your Project panel, so
| | 06:11 | then you can right-click directly on
that layer and say, Reveal in Finder, or
| | 06:15 | Windows Explorer on the PC.
| | 06:17 | When we're in the Finder, now you
guessed it, we just need to double-click the
| | 06:22 | Photoshop document to
open it back up in Photoshop.
| | 06:25 | I want to clean up the edge of this Green
layer and I wanted to have a slight curve.
| | 06:30 | Now I know this isn't a Photoshop class, so
we're not going to spend a lot of time in here.
| | 06:34 | I'm just going to grab
our Elliptical Marquee tool.
| | 06:37 | If you see the rectangle one, just click
and hold and choose Elliptical Marquee.
| | 06:43 | Let's start kind of three-quarters to the
left side of our comp and click and drag.
| | 06:49 | I'll just reposition this by moving my mouse
in the middle of the cursor and there we go.
| | 06:55 | Let's say I want that to be my new left edge.
| | 06:58 | So I'm going to go to Selection and
choose Inverse, so now everything else other
| | 07:04 | than the circle selected, and
press Delete on my keyboard.
| | 07:08 | I know I could press Delete because I already
had the Green layer selected in my Layers panel.
| | 07:14 | So it's time to go up under Select and
say Deselect and just File > Save to save
| | 07:21 | the change you've made.
| | 07:22 | If we jump back over into After Effects,
notice nothing has really happened.
| | 07:27 | Since the layer is already highlighted,
all we have to do is right-click on that
| | 07:31 | layer in the Project panel
and choose Reload Footage.
| | 07:34 | This will force After Effects to go
back to that Photoshop document and then
| | 07:39 | reload the revised version.
| | 07:41 | Notice even now that it's been reloaded,
when I click on the Green layer, it's
| | 07:45 | now changed the bounding box
to this portion of the layer.
| | 07:50 | It's pretty cool to have that interoperability.
| | 07:53 | So I hope you can see how valuable it
is to pay attention to what you import
| | 07:58 | when you import compositions and
more importantly, how nice it is that
| | 08:02 | Photoshop, Illustrator and After
Effects all play very nicely together.
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| Introducing renderers| 00:00 | I want to take a timeout here for
a second and talk about renderers.
| | 00:04 | As you can see from our project here,
it's not very pretty and it's not
| | 00:08 | organized yet, and that's just
because we're in the process of getting
| | 00:12 | everything in and just
starting to flesh out our animation.
| | 00:16 | Understand that pre-composing is
going to be an integral part of that.
| | 00:20 | But before we start really diving deep
into pre-composing, what we need to do is
| | 00:25 | understand what renderer we're using.
| | 00:28 | The reason I bring this up, up until
this point, we've been creating comps by
| | 00:32 | importing external pieces of footage,
as well as creating them from scratch.
| | 00:36 | Well when you import external pieces
of footage like a Photoshop document we
| | 00:40 | did in the previous video, the
blend modes from those documents will
| | 00:45 | translate into After Effects.
| | 00:48 | And if you're not paying close
attention to what renderer you're using, that
| | 00:51 | could be problematic.
| | 00:54 | So for example, if we look at layer
1 here, this was a Green layer that was
| | 00:59 | brought in from an external Photoshop document.
| | 01:02 | And if you look over here in our
Switches area in the middle of the interface,
| | 01:06 | you should see that Hard Light is
a blend mode that's been applied.
| | 01:11 | I don't want you to be concerned about the
specific blend mode or how blend modes work.
| | 01:15 | We're going to dive deep
into that in the next chapter.
| | 01:18 | Right now, I just want you to be
able to see that it's not set to Normal.
| | 01:22 | And when your layer is not set to
Normal that means you're using a blend mode.
| | 01:26 | Notice with this layer being set to
Hard Light, it looks kind of different in
| | 01:30 | terms of how it blends
into all the layers below it.
| | 01:34 | If I press T to open up my
Opacity, you can see it's at 42%.
| | 01:40 | Well let's click and drag that up to
100 and you'll see with Hard Light, it's
| | 01:45 | mixing with the layers below it.
| | 01:47 | Let's go to the Composition >
Composition Settings for our kineteco_02
| | 01:52 | composition that we're in.
| | 01:54 | Let's move this to the left
so we can see our comp window.
| | 01:58 | If you go to the Advanced Tab, check this out.
| | 02:01 | Our Renderer that we're using
is the Ray-traced 3D renderer.
| | 02:05 | Now the problem with this is the fact that
this renderer does not support blend modes.
| | 02:11 | Now I know you're thinking to yourself,
well, I'm looking at one right now.
| | 02:15 | It's working perfectly well,
and you would be correct.
| | 02:18 | But if I click OK and go back into my comp
and turn this into 3D, look what happens.
| | 02:26 | It's going to take a little while
to process, but now check it out.
| | 02:29 | There's no blend mode being applied.
| | 02:31 | And as a matter of fact, I can't
even see it in my Switches panel.
| | 02:35 | So when I get to pre-composing things,
if you're not paying attention to what
| | 02:39 | renderer you're using, if you have
blend modes in there as well, you're really
| | 02:43 | starting to complicate things.
| | 02:45 | So let's change this back
from a 3D layer to a 2D layer.
| | 02:49 | Go into our Composition > Composition
Settings, and under the Advanced tab,
| | 02:54 | let's change the Renderer
from Ray-traced to Classic 3D.
| | 02:59 | Now when we click OK, even if we
make this a 3D layer, we still have a
| | 03:04 | blend mode applied to it. All right,
| | 03:07 | now that we've covered that little
hurdle about the renderer, now we're ready to
| | 03:10 | actually jump in and
understand composing and pre-composing.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding precomposing| 00:00 | Pre-compositions are definitely
something you can use in After Effects to
| | 00:04 | maintain flexibility.
| | 00:06 | If you want to be able to animate each
individual layer as its own object, but
| | 00:12 | then in turn move that object around
the canvas as though it were one object,
| | 00:17 | you might want to consider using precomposing.
| | 00:21 | Now let's look at our
project in its current state.
| | 00:24 | Inevitably, as you're working, you're
going to look at our project and realize,
| | 00:29 | wow, this is really kind of a mess, and
that is a part of the creative process.
| | 00:33 | But if you can keep yourself
organized in the creative process, life will
| | 00:38 | be that much easier.
| | 00:39 | So before we create our first pre-
composition, let's do some housekeeping.
| | 00:44 | In the Project panel on the upper left
-hand side, notice I have a couple of
| | 00:48 | folders, a QuickTime file and two compositions.
| | 00:52 | The kineteco_02 comp is the comp that
we're currently looking at for our animation.
| | 00:57 | This Eco_Shapes composition got
created when we imported a Photoshop document
| | 01:02 | in our previous video.
| | 01:04 | If you double-click that you'll see
we have these two shapes in this comp.
| | 01:09 | I don't need this in my timeline, so I'm
just going to click the X right next to
| | 01:12 | the name to close that out.
| | 01:14 | Let's move this comp and these two folders
into their own folder and call it External files.
| | 01:20 | The reason I want to do this, again,
it's just general housekeeping.
| | 01:24 | So with Eco_Shapes selected, hold the
Command key on the Mac or the Ctrl key on
| | 01:28 | the PC and select Kineteco_02
layers and Eco_Shapes layers.
| | 01:34 | With all three of these files selected,
now I'm just going to click and drag
| | 01:39 | with my mouse down to the folder
in the bottom of the Project panel.
| | 01:43 | When I let go, it looks like they've
disappeared, but really, they're inside of
| | 01:47 | this untitled folder.
| | 01:48 | So in here, let's rename it External_Files.
| | 01:53 | And just so you can see, if we open
the triangle, you can see here they are.
| | 01:58 | Now let's do the same
thing with the QuickTime file.
| | 02:00 | Click and drag the Solar_panels
QuickTime file down to its own folder and call
| | 02:05 | this Video_Files, okay.
| | 02:08 | Now we have our main
comp that we're working on.
| | 02:12 | So like we said earlier,
this looks kind of busy.
| | 02:15 | And I'd like to be able to just click on
this logo and drag it as one big piece.
| | 02:22 | I'm just going to undo Command+Z.
In order to do that, instead of using
| | 02:27 | parenting as a technique or some
other technique, I'm going to select these
| | 02:33 | layers by clicking on 9 and
Shift+Clicking on layer 3.
| | 02:38 | So now layers 3 through 9 are selected,
and we'll go up under the Layer menu and
| | 02:44 | go down to Pre-compose.
| | 02:47 | Now there are some options that popup
here, but the only one we can choose right
| | 02:51 | now is Move all
attributes into a new composition.
| | 02:54 | This is because we don't have any
animation applied to these layers currently.
| | 02:58 | It's important to stay organized
whenever I create a pre-composition I like to
| | 03:03 | end it with the word Pre-comp.
| | 03:05 | So I'm going to hit my Left Arrow so
my icon pops up on the left side of the
| | 03:09 | name, and I'll just call this Logo Pre-
comp and we can leave the 1 in there.
| | 03:15 | Now when I click OK, I have one comp layer.
| | 03:18 | I can turn the Visibility on and
off and I can just reposition that
| | 03:23 | anywhere within my project.
| | 03:25 | Let's click and drag it down to the
left and press S to open up the Scale
| | 03:29 | parameter and we'll scale this down.
| | 03:32 | Now 33% seems to be working.
| | 03:34 | We can move it down and out of the way, but
you'll notice it's underneath these two layers.
| | 03:40 | So let's click and drag the comp in the
timeline up to the top of the layer hierarchy.
| | 03:46 | And here, let's drag it back over the
right there a little bit just so we can
| | 03:51 | see how it's fitting in here.
| | 03:53 | Just in general, when you're
positioning objects that have type, you want to
| | 03:57 | click this button here in
the bottom of the comp window.
| | 03:59 | That will open up Title/Action Safe.
| | 04:02 | See in here, you want any words
to be inside of this second square.
| | 04:08 | That's called Title Safe.
| | 04:09 | I'll turn this off for now
and let's look at precomposing.
| | 04:13 | Because we have scaled this down and this
pre-comp works perfectly well just like this.
| | 04:20 | But let's see what happens when we deal
with a layer that has a blend mode attached.
| | 04:25 | Just so we can accentuate what's
going on here, select layer 2 and press T.
| | 04:31 | That way we can look at the Opacity
of this layer and click and drag on the
| | 04:35 | value and drag it up to 100%.
| | 04:38 | Graphically, I don't like how this looks,
but this is going to accentuate what
| | 04:42 | I'm talking about when it comes to pre-comps.
| | 04:44 | So with Green set to a 100% Opacity,
you can see--I can still see through it
| | 04:50 | because it's using the Hard Light blend mode.
| | 04:53 | And again, we're going to jump into
blend modes in the next chapter, but for now,
| | 04:57 | just to understand that this is applied.
| | 04:59 | So select layer 2 and Shift+Click
to select layer 3, go up under Layer
| | 05:05 | and choose Pre-compose.
| | 05:07 | We'll move all these attributes as well,
and again, I'm going to hit the Left
| | 05:11 | Arrow and just call this Bars_Pre-comp 1.
| | 05:15 | Now when I click OK, these layers have
been moved to their own composition as well.
| | 05:20 | Now look what happened to
the green, notice how it's no
| | 05:24 | longer semi-transparent.
| | 05:26 | Yes, I can still see the yellow layer
below it, but if we click this button
| | 05:31 | right here next to this little shy guy,
notice now the blend mode actually comes back.
| | 05:38 | See, this button right here is
called Collapse Transformations.
| | 05:42 | You can see that name when you
click and hold on this button.
| | 05:46 | This does two things.
| | 05:47 | First thing, with Collapse
Transformations disabled, if I click and drag my bars
| | 05:53 | to the right, notice they're cut off.
| | 05:56 | See, when I collapse my transformations,
you can see now this layer is extended.
| | 06:02 | So Collapse Transformations tells this
kineteco_02 composition to ignore any of
| | 06:09 | the parameters set by its current environment.
| | 06:13 | But actually, look at how the layers
exist on their own even if you open up the
| | 06:18 | Bars comp, it's still ignoring the edge
of that comp because it's really looking
| | 06:23 | at the values of these layers as a whole.
| | 06:26 | Now it also looks at the blend modes.
| | 06:28 | So if we jump back to our kineticeco_
02 layer and select our Bar comp here,
| | 06:34 | you'll know if we deselect you can see
no blend modes, whereas when we enable
| | 06:41 | Collapse Transformations, the blend
modes are allowed to compute through.
| | 06:45 | So Collapsing Transformations just
allows whatever is going on to go through the
| | 06:51 | different compositions.
| | 06:53 | Now we can reposition this back
down into the bottom of our comp.
| | 06:59 | And that pretty much wraps up
our overview of precompositions.
| | 07:04 | Don't worry, as we continue moving
throughout the rest of this course, we're
| | 07:08 | going to dive deeper and deeper into
pre-comps in specific instances when you
| | 07:14 | may want to consider using them.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Relinking missing footage| 00:00 | Now I know this composition looks
perfectly fine right now and that's just
| | 00:04 | because the After Effects project can
actually find all the external files
| | 00:10 | that are linked to it.
| | 00:11 | But on occasion, you'll open up a
project and not be able to see any of the
| | 00:16 | files or some of the files will be missing.
| | 00:19 | And it'll be kind of terrifying
because they'll look like color bars.
| | 00:23 | And the first time I ever saw that, I panicked.
| | 00:26 | I don't want you to panic, so just kind
of follow with me as I mess this up and
| | 00:31 | then show you how to fix it.
| | 00:33 | So first thing, with my External_
Files here, I'm just going to open up my
| | 00:39 | Photoshop document and if you right-
click on any file, you can always say Reveal
| | 00:44 | in Finder or in Windows Explorer.
| | 00:46 | So when I reveal that, here's my
Photoshop document, I'm just going to do
| | 00:52 | something kind of scary,
and drag this to the Trash.
| | 00:55 | Do not do this on your system.
| | 00:57 | But when you do that, I can come back
in here and then right-click on here
| | 01:03 | and say Reload Footage.
| | 01:05 | And it's saying it can't be found.
| | 01:08 | And then, these are the
color bars that you will see.
| | 01:11 | You can make footage offline, like if
this is something you're trying to do, you
| | 01:16 | can right-click on a piece of
footage and then say Replace Footage with a
| | 01:21 | Placeholder, and if we just click OK,
it'll do kind of the same thing.
| | 01:27 | But basically, any time you run into this
problem, you can always re-link the footage.
| | 01:33 | Since I didn't actually move the
Illustrator file at all, I should be able to
| | 01:38 | right-click on it and just say Reload
Footage and it goes back into the Finder
| | 01:43 | and finds it, but sometimes that doesn't happen.
| | 01:46 | So if you right-click on it and go to
Replace Footage, I can go to File and
| | 01:51 | then navigate to my Footage folder in
my exercise files, and under Illustrator
| | 01:57 | here at the top, just to remind myself
what it is, it's saying it's the Blades
| | 02:01 | layer of kineteco_02.
| | 02:04 | So let's select kineteco_02 and choose
Open, and then it's going to say, okay,
| | 02:10 | is this all layers or can I choose a layer?
| | 02:13 | So select Choose Layer
and click and choose Blades.
| | 02:18 | Now the only other thing you want to
look at, is the actual dimensions of the
| | 02:23 | file that you're reconnecting.
| | 02:25 | Now as I look up here in the left side
of my Project panel, I can see it's only
| | 02:29 | 281x242 pixels, and I know that I
would never create a composition that small,
| | 02:35 | so I'm going to choose Layer
Size for my footage dimensions.
| | 02:39 | Now when I click OK, that will be re-
linked and it populates just perfectly well.
| | 02:45 | We can do the same exact thing for this
Photoshop document, but if I click here
| | 02:50 | and say Replace Footage and go to File,
I would obviously need to move that back
| | 02:55 | into my Photoshop folder.
| | 02:57 | So let me cancel this really quick, and
in my Finder I'm going to pop open the
| | 03:02 | Trash and drag my Eco_Shapes layers
back up into the Photoshop folder.
| | 03:06 | Now when we jump back into the Project
panel, I can right-click and try Reload
| | 03:12 | Footage and--nope, okay, I'm
going to have to Replace Footage.
| | 03:16 | I can go to my File Options here and
navigate in my Footage folder to the
| | 03:21 | Photoshop folder, choose Eco_Shapes.
| | 03:24 | And unlike the last time when I re-
linked, After Effects did find the
| | 03:29 | other missing item.
| | 03:30 | A lot of times if you have multiple
items within one folder that are missing,
| | 03:36 | you can re-link and it will find all
of the subsequent files, so you don't
| | 03:41 | necessarily always have to
right-click and find those files.
| | 03:46 | Now one last thing, on occasion, when
you open After Effects projects, you'll
| | 03:50 | get an error message saying
that it can't find certain items.
| | 03:54 | If there are a lot of those items and
you have a lot of folder structure in your
| | 03:59 | Project panel, if you click up here and
start typing the word missing, any file
| | 04:04 | that's missing will actually
popup here in your Project panel.
| | 04:07 | And you can right-click on those and
go through the same process that we just
| | 04:11 | went through when it
comes to re-linking footage.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
3. Building and Designing with LayersDefining layers| 00:00 | I want to start just off this chapter by
clearly defining what layers are in the
| | 00:05 | context of After Effects.
| | 00:07 | Even if you have exposure to layers
inside of Photoshop, layers in After Effects
| | 00:11 | are organized in a very interesting fashion.
| | 00:14 | Compositions are the containers that
the layers reside in, but what I rather
| | 00:18 | find curious about layers is just how
different all the various kinds of layers can be.
| | 00:23 | Some layers are only
generated from within the composition.
| | 00:26 | Those are called synthetic layers, since
After Effects is synthesizing their creations.
| | 00:32 | So if we look at our kineteco_02
composition right here, you'll see we have a
| | 00:37 | number of layers in our comp.
| | 00:39 | Now I'm just going to move up the timeline,
so it's a little more dominant in our view.
| | 00:43 | Now the first layer in layer
1 is actually a shape layer.
| | 00:48 | Shape layers are rather interesting
because they are created within the
| | 00:52 | composition of After Effects.
| | 00:55 | If I went up into my Project panel and
tried to search for shape layer, it's
| | 01:01 | not going to find it.
| | 01:02 | It will find the Shapes Photoshop
document I imported earlier, but it will not
| | 01:07 | find this individual layer.
| | 01:09 | I would have to search within the
timeline to find something like that.
| | 01:13 | Now let's clear out that search, and
back on layer 1, if you open the triangle
| | 01:17 | for Shape Layer, you see I have my
Transform Options that every single layer
| | 01:23 | has, but I also have a Contents layer.
| | 01:25 | And the way layers are organized
inside of After Effects, you have these
| | 01:30 | different sections and they keep
drilling down with different triangles.
| | 01:34 | So this layer, if you can see it here
in the composition here, I'll scroll in
| | 01:38 | just a little bit and hold the
Spacebar and click and drag to move the
| | 01:42 | composition up, you can see it's
actually a rectangle and its opacity is 60%.
| | 01:49 | See if I change this up to 100, you
could see it a little more clearly here.
| | 01:53 | Interestingly enough, with the contents
for a shape layer, I added a rectangle path.
| | 02:00 | And that's where I set exactly how long it
was going to be and how many pixels tall.
| | 02:07 | There's also a Fill that's applied,
and within the Fill it has a color.
| | 02:11 | We'll get more into shape layers later
in this chapter, but I wanted you to look
| | 02:17 | at how layers are organized overall
in terms of these individual sections.
| | 02:22 | It's kind of organized
almost like an outline would be.
| | 02:26 | If you select Layer 1 and press the
U key, it will hide anything that you
| | 02:31 | currently have open.
| | 02:33 | Now select layer 2.
| | 02:36 | This is a text layer, this is very much like
a shape layer and that it's a synthetic layer.
| | 02:41 | It's generated within the composition itself.
| | 02:44 | So the way to add a text layer, we
use the Text tool up in our Tool panel.
| | 02:49 | But for now, open the triangle on layer 2.
| | 02:53 | And here you can see we have Text
Options and Path Options for that text as well
| | 02:58 | as more options for the text.
| | 03:01 | Now what's interesting is, there is
this flyout button that says Animate.
| | 03:05 | And if we click on that you can change
things for your text like the Fill Color
| | 03:10 | or give it a Stroke.
| | 03:12 | But we'll jump into that in a little bit.
| | 03:15 | Now I'm going to close more options
here and open the Shape Layer and I want
| | 03:19 | you to notice that it's
organized in a very similar fashion.
| | 03:23 | See how the Shape Layer has contents
and then two sections and Text layers have
| | 03:27 | text, and then I have my
Path Options and more options.
| | 03:31 | It's just something to note.
| | 03:33 | Once you learn how layers work for one
kind of layer, chances are it will work
| | 03:37 | in a similar fashion for the next kind of layer.
| | 03:40 | Now comp layers are fun
because they contain other layers.
| | 03:44 | If we open up that triangle, you see I
do have an effect applied to that layer.
| | 03:48 | I can also see that here in
the FX area of my switches.
| | 03:52 | And if we open the Effects you can
see I have a Drop Shadow applied.
| | 03:56 | If we close 3, let's look at 4.
| | 03:59 | This is actually called a Solid Layer.
| | 04:01 | And while this is being created within
After Effects, it is also something that
| | 04:06 | is footage you can
reference in your Project panel.
| | 04:09 | See, if I right-click on my Solid layer,
I can say Reveal Layer Source in Project.
| | 04:14 | And when I do that, you can see there is
actually a solid that exists within my composition.
| | 04:20 | This is nice because if I wanted to add
another layer solid, I wouldn't have to
| | 04:25 | come up under Layer and choose New
Solid, I could literally just drag it and
| | 04:29 | drop it down into the timeline and
now you can see I have a second layer.
| | 04:34 | Now the reason this is dominating my
view, I put it at the second layer and the
| | 04:40 | rectangle shape layer is above it.
| | 04:42 | If I delete this layer Solid, you'll
notice, well, this one isn't dominating my
| | 04:46 | view, and that's because
it has a Mask applied to it.
| | 04:50 | Layers can contain masks, and if I open
the triangle you can see the very first
| | 04:55 | thing that's applied is this Mask.
| | 04:58 | Again, we'll explore this later in the chapter.
| | 05:01 | But the last kind of layer I want
to show you is an adjustment layer.
| | 05:05 | See, if we change the magnification of
our comp in the lower left corner of the
| | 05:10 | comp window, change it to fit up to 100%.
| | 05:13 | Now when I expand the view here, you can
see that my background video layer is blurry.
| | 05:19 | I just scrolled with my
mouse over the comp window.
| | 05:22 | If you move your mouse over the
timeline and scroll, you can see you can scroll
| | 05:26 | up and down within the timeline.
| | 05:28 | With this adjustment layer,
notice I have an effect applied.
| | 05:31 | But if we look at our video layer, the
Solar layer down here, here I'm going to
| | 05:35 | expand the width of the Name
Column just by clicking on this dash.
| | 05:38 | Here, you can see this Video layer
does not have an effect applied to it.
| | 05:42 | And you might be thinking,
well, how was that blurry?
| | 05:44 | Well an adjustment layer is in
essence an empty or transparent layer within
| | 05:50 | After Effects, but what it allows you
to do is apply effects to that layer.
| | 05:55 | So notice if I open that up, I have a
Fast Blur applied to the adjustment layer.
| | 06:00 | The way they work, any layer
that's below them will be affected.
| | 06:03 | So if I drag this adjustment layer all
the way up to underneath Charlie Winter's
| | 06:08 | name, now look, everything is
blurry that's below that layer.
| | 06:12 | Okay, so now that we've seen the
overview of these different kinds of layers,
| | 06:16 | let's go ahead and jump-in and
actually cover these layers more in-depth
| | 06:20 | throughout the rest of this chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating type| 00:00 | Text animation is one of the
things that After Effects does
| | 00:03 | extraordinarily well.
| | 00:06 | Out of all the things that After
Effects does extraordinarily well, text has
| | 00:10 | got to be in the top five.
| | 00:11 | Because, I have to say, text
animation in After Effects is pretty amazing.
| | 00:16 | But before you can start animating
text, you need to be comfortable with
| | 00:19 | actually just adding text to your compositions.
| | 00:22 | Now the first time you ever add
text to a composition, I want you to pay
| | 00:26 | attention to one thing.
| | 00:28 | It's down here in the Comp Viewer
on the left-hand side next to your
| | 00:32 | Magnification pulldown.
| | 00:34 | If you click on that button, notice
there is an option for Title/Action Safe, go
| | 00:39 | ahead and select that.
| | 00:41 | And these lines that popup are guides,
and basically, any important graphics
| | 00:45 | should be inside this first large
rectangle and any text should be inside of
| | 00:53 | the next rectangle.
| | 00:55 | Now that we can see our graphic is
clearly inside of these boxes, I'm just going
| | 01:00 | to use these graphics as the
guidelines for adding our text.
| | 01:04 | So let's turn off Title/Action Safe by
clicking on the button and reselecting it again.
| | 01:10 | And to add text to our composition,
just go up to your Tool panel on the upper
| | 01:15 | left and click on the Text tool.
| | 01:18 | Now I want you to pay attention to
this switch over here because it may very
| | 01:22 | well be active on your computer.
| | 01:24 | If it's not, go ahead and select it.
| | 01:27 | Now let's grab the Selection
tool and grab the Text tool.
| | 01:32 | See, with Auto panels selected, these
two panels automatically popped up; the
| | 01:38 | Character panel and the Paragraph panel.
| | 01:40 | If this wasn't selected, I can click
this button here to toggle the visibility
| | 01:46 | of the Character and Paragraph panels.
| | 01:48 | Now whenever you add text to your
projects, you should have these panels open.
| | 01:53 | And as a matter of fact, if you're
adding a lot of text to your project, you
| | 01:57 | should go up to the
Workspace and reset it to Text.
| | 02:00 | I'm just going to leave it the way it's set up
right now because this is kind of working for me.
| | 02:05 | In the Character panel, you should pay
attention to what we're actually going to
| | 02:09 | set up to be our text.
| | 02:11 | So first thing on the right here, this is
where you can set the color of your text.
| | 02:17 | Now this other box that's right here
will allow you to create an outline around
| | 02:22 | your text, if you like.
| | 02:24 | I like leaving that empty and
just let's leave this white for now.
| | 02:28 | The typeface we'll use as Myriad
Pro and we'll use the Bold style.
| | 02:34 | If yours isn't bold already, go ahead
and click on that pulldown and choose Bold.
| | 02:39 | Now when you hover your mouse over
the viewer, you should see the Eye Bar
| | 02:42 | with the box around it.
| | 02:44 | This lets us know where
we're going to set our text.
| | 02:47 | So let's click just to the right of
our logo in the bar, and now you can see a
| | 02:53 | cursor has appeared.
| | 02:55 | So we're ready to start typing.
| | 02:57 | I'm going to add the name Charlie Winters.
| | 03:02 | Now a lot of the time when you're
creating a lower third, you want to have
| | 03:05 | somebody's name and their title.
| | 03:07 | So let's press Return on our keyboard,
not on the keypad Enter, but Return on
| | 03:12 | your keyboard to add a second line of text.
| | 03:15 | Here, we'll call Charlie our News Anchor.
| | 03:20 | We need to stylize this text
because it's definitely way too dominant.
| | 03:24 | So even before we set this text, bring
your mouse up to the right of the anchor
| | 03:30 | and you see I have an Eye Bar.
| | 03:32 | So if you click and drag,
this will select the text.
| | 03:36 | Now as a general rule, when I'm creating
text, I'd like to not use more than two
| | 03:41 | typefaces in a project or at the
very least, no more than three.
| | 03:48 | With this logo here I think this is
going to be okay as long as we keep Myriad
| | 03:52 | Pro as the overarching family.
| | 03:55 | We can add different styles for everything else.
| | 03:57 | So let's change the news anchor
style from Bold to Italic. Perfect!
| | 04:04 | Now we can change the size just by
clicking and dragging in the value here and
| | 04:09 | bring that back down.
| | 04:11 | Now there's still a little bit of
space between the first line and the second
| | 04:14 | line and we can adjust that
over here on the word Auto.
| | 04:19 | If you click and drag, that will allow
you to make an adjustment for the leading.
| | 04:26 | I like this, but I still want to draw
some definition between Charlie's first
| | 04:31 | name and Winters, the last name.
| | 04:33 | So if you press the Left Arrow key on
your keyboard, that will deselect News
| | 04:38 | Anchor and if you press it one more time,
notice your cursor will popup to the next line.
| | 04:43 | Now if I hold down Shift and keep hitting
the Left Arrow, I can select multiple letters.
| | 04:50 | Now if I want to change the style
of the last name, go over to the Bold
| | 04:54 | dropdown and just click inside of it
to make sure that Bold is highlighted.
| | 04:58 | If you just use your Up and Down arrows,
you can actually scroll through all
| | 05:03 | the different options.
| | 05:04 | I want to choose Regular as the option.
| | 05:08 | Now I think this is looking pretty good.
| | 05:10 | To set my text, I'm going
to press Enter on my keypad.
| | 05:13 | You can also come up and
grab the Selection tool.
| | 05:17 | When I initially pressed Enter on the
keypad, all it did was deselect my bold.
| | 05:22 | So the entire two lines of text was
set when I grabbed my Selection tool.
| | 05:27 | If I wanted to preview other typefaces,
I could go over and highlight Myriad Pro
| | 05:31 | and start pressing up and down.
| | 05:33 | But since I've done all this other formatting,
that would actually blow all that work away.
| | 05:39 | So typically, when you're previewing
typefaces, you want to choose exactly which
| | 05:43 | family you want to use first
before you start creating styles.
| | 05:48 | This was a basic introduction to text,
if you're really into text and text
| | 05:52 | animation, we've got a whole chapter,
in Chapter 8 you should definitely
| | 05:57 | go check out.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating layer solids and shapes with masks| 00:00 | Layer solids, also called color layers,
are some of the most basic elements you
| | 00:05 | can create within After Effects.
| | 00:06 | And even though they may seem kind of
basic, they're one of the most flexible
| | 00:10 | elements you can create within a composition.
| | 00:13 | Now if you are joining me from the
previous video, you can see we have the
| | 00:16 | lower third graphic here.
| | 00:18 | I've just taken this entire composition,
| | 00:20 | add a little Drop Shadow to the text, and then
I dropped that into a new layer solids comp.
| | 00:26 | Now in here I'm just going to use this
as reference so we can create some new
| | 00:31 | shapes to kind of mimic this shape here.
| | 00:34 | So to get started I want to use a layer solid.
| | 00:38 | To create a layer solid you can go up
under the Layer menu and choose New > Solid.
| | 00:44 | Now if you ever go up to the top
menus and you don't get this option here,
| | 00:49 | chances are you have Project panel active.
| | 00:51 | You need to have the timeline active
that way when you go to create your layer
| | 00:56 | solid, After Effects knows which
composition you're going to place it in.
| | 01:00 | So when we click Solid here the Solid
Settings will pop up based on whatever
| | 01:06 | solid you created the last time.
| | 01:07 | So I happen to create a cyan color
the last time, yours may be white.
| | 01:13 | Regardless, down here at the bottom you
can change the color if you just click
| | 01:18 | in the color well and drag anywhere
in this color area here, let's say over
| | 01:24 | towards white, that would work or if
you drag over to the right side of the
| | 01:28 | color well, you can see this is more saturated.
| | 01:31 | So let's drag over there and then
this bar here with the two arrows, if you
| | 01:36 | click one of those arrows and move
down you can choose a different hue.
| | 01:40 | So I'll choose something
relatively green and click OK.
| | 01:44 | Now if we really wanted to mimic
something from the graphic, we could click the
| | 01:49 | Eye Dropper and then click directly on,
let's say, this yellow orange shape here.
| | 01:55 | The other thing you need to pay attention to
with layer solids are their actual dimensions.
| | 02:01 | You can quickly make any layer solid any size.
| | 02:03 | For example, if I wanted a square, I
could say make it 200 pixels and I'll press
| | 02:08 | Tab to jump to Height and say 200 Pixels.
| | 02:12 | Now notice that the Aspect ratio is 1:1,
we're using pixels and Square Pixels.
| | 02:17 | So when I click OK, we'll
have a square in the middle here.
| | 02:21 | Now most of time when you're working
with layer solids what you want to do is
| | 02:25 | make them the size of the composition,
especially if you're going to animate
| | 02:30 | a mask on that solid.
| | 02:32 | But before we do that I want to show
you why you would probably want to animate
| | 02:35 | the mask as opposed to the solid itself.
| | 02:38 | See, any layer solid you can add a
mask to by going up to your Tool panel and
| | 02:44 | either choosing one of the shape
options by clicking and holding, or grabbing
| | 02:49 | the Pen tool if you wanted
to create the custom shape.
| | 02:51 | Let's do something rather simple and
click and hold on the Rectangle tool until
| | 02:55 | you get down to the Ellipse tool.
| | 02:58 | In here, since we still have Layer 1
selected, when I click and drag just
| | 03:03 | anywhere in here noticed
I'm getting that Ellipse.
| | 03:07 | But look what happens if I start
dragging off the edge of that solid.
| | 03:12 | The edges of the solid appear.
| | 03:14 | So typically, if I know I'm going to
be making a custom shape and I want to
| | 03:18 | use layer masks to create that shape,
I won't just use a small solid, I'll
| | 03:24 | make it the comp size.
| | 03:25 | Now since we've already created this
solid, let's make sure the layer solid is
| | 03:29 | selected and go up under
Layer and choose Solid Settings.
| | 03:33 | You could also use the keyboard shortcut
Shift+Command+Y or Shift+Ctrl+Y on the PC.
| | 03:39 | Now with the new Solid Settings
set up, I can say Make Comp Size.
| | 03:44 | When we choose that, it's
automatically going to change the solid to the
| | 03:49 | new size of the layer.
| | 03:50 | Now notice when it did that it
also changed the size of the mask.
| | 03:54 | Now rather than having to deal with
changing where the mask is and figuring out
| | 03:58 | where the solid is, it might
be easier just to start over.
| | 04:02 | So if you ever need to delete a mask off
of a layer, go ahead and select the mask.
| | 04:07 | Notice I'm not selecting
this group here that says Masks.
| | 04:11 | I'm selecting the actual mask itself, Mask 1.
| | 04:14 | When you click on that in the timeline
and press Delete on your keyboard that
| | 04:18 | will delete your mask.
| | 04:19 | Now let's turn off the
visibility for this layer solid.
| | 04:22 | In order to create this parallelogram
shape, what we need to do is start with
| | 04:27 | something that's relatively close.
| | 04:29 | So if we go back up to our Shape tool
and click and hold, instead of choosing
| | 04:34 | Ellipse, let's choose the Rectangle tool.
| | 04:37 | Instead of dragging anywhere in the
canvas, one of the tips I can offer when
| | 04:42 | you're working with layer solids and
you're making shapes, you want to start
| | 04:45 | actually in the center of that layer.
| | 04:48 | That way when you click and drag, if
you hold down Shift, you'll keep it square
| | 04:53 | in proportions, but if you hold down
Command or Ctrl on the PC along with Shift,
| | 05:00 | you can keep it square and
scale it in a 1:1 proportion.
| | 05:05 | I'll make it roughly the same size just
visually, kind of eyeballing it and I'll
| | 05:10 | go back and grab my Selection tool.
| | 05:13 | I have all four of these layer masks active.
| | 05:16 | Here let me zoom in here, so
you can see it a little better.
| | 05:18 | And I'll actually turn off this lower
third background so you can see it over black.
| | 05:22 | And now with all four of the control vertices
selected, I can click on the mask and move it.
| | 05:29 | So I'm just going to press Command+Z to
Undo and click outside of the mask to deselect.
| | 05:36 | And then in order the get that
parallelogram shape, I'll click on one and then
| | 05:40 | hold down Shift and click on another.
| | 05:44 | Now you can see that these two are
selected and these two are not, because if
| | 05:48 | I zoom in again, here you can kind of see
the black edge around the not selected points.
| | 05:55 | All right, now let's zoom back out.
| | 05:57 | Now all we have to do is
click on this edge and drag.
| | 06:00 | Now as we're dragging, you want to
hold down Shift that way it will snap
| | 06:06 | as you're dragging.
| | 06:07 | So unfortunately, I started dragging
in one direction too far before I held
| | 06:13 | down Shift, so I'm just going to Command
+Z to Undo that, and click and then hold
| | 06:18 | down Shift and drag only
to my left, there we go.
| | 06:21 | Now I've got my parallelogram.
| | 06:23 | And if I wanted to be really precise, I
could turn the visibility of the other layer on;
| | 06:27 | press my spacebar and
click and drag to move over.
| | 06:30 | And then to quickly select all four
points of the mask, if you just click on the
| | 06:34 | mask name in the Layer panel,
notice it won't just select all four;
| | 06:39 | you need to deselect it and then click
on it and then all four will be selected
| | 06:43 | so we can drag it down here.
| | 06:45 | Now it's important to note, as I'm
dragging this down, if we actually go to
| | 06:50 | this pulldown menu next to the mask
where it says Add, if you click on that
| | 06:54 | and choose None, and we zoom out in our
canvas, you can see we have not moved
| | 06:59 | the layer solid itself.
| | 07:00 | All we've been doing is moving the mask.
| | 07:02 | If I grab one of the anchor points, I
can move the mask anywhere and it will
| | 07:06 | always be full inside of the composition.
| | 07:11 | Let's change this switchback to Add,
and here you can see it has cut that shape
| | 07:16 | out, if we change this switch to
Subtract now it switched to the inverse.
| | 07:21 | Let's go back to Add and there's one last thing.
| | 07:24 | If you open the triangle next to Mask 1,
notice you can keyframe the Mask Path.
| | 07:30 | This is how you would actually
create animation with the shape.
| | 07:34 | If we wanted it to move from one side
to the other, we just add a keyframe for
| | 07:38 | the Mask Path, move our current
time indicator and then move the mask.
| | 07:44 | Now we've created animation.
| | 07:45 | If you scrub in the timeline, you can
see we've created a layer solid shape
| | 07:50 | using masks, and we've applied basic animation.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Building shape layers| 00:00 | Now before we jump into creating
shape layers, it's important to understand
| | 00:04 | that the creation of shape layers
and the creation of layer masks are
| | 00:08 | remarkably similar.
| | 00:09 | And honestly, you just have to be
careful what layer you have selected, or if you
| | 00:13 | have a layer selected at all, if you
are trying to create a shape layer.
| | 00:18 | Now in the previous video I
showed you how to use layer masks to
| | 00:21 | animate geometric shapes.
| | 00:23 | Now in this video, I want to show you
a more traditional use of layer masks.
| | 00:28 | So we have this footage of our talent
shot on a green screen and you notice,
| | 00:32 | there's a black edge around this footage,
so even if I keyed this out, which
| | 00:37 | don't worry if you don't understand
what keying is, we have a whole chapter to
| | 00:41 | that dedicated later on in the course.
| | 00:44 | But to jump back to layer masks, since
we have Layer 1 selected, if we come up
| | 00:49 | to any of our Shape tools, let's use
the Rectangle tool, I'm just clicking and
| | 00:53 | holding choosing the Rectangle tool.
| | 00:56 | If you click and drag now in your
viewer, I can draw a mask around our talent
| | 01:03 | and now you notice I've cut
that black edge off of the mask.
| | 01:06 | This is a very traditional way of using layer
masks and it's actually called a garbage mask.
| | 01:12 | Now like I said, we're going to get
into green screen keying a little later.
| | 01:16 | So for now, let's hide Layer 1.
| | 01:18 | Now the key to making a successful
shape layer, make sure you don't have any
| | 01:23 | layers selected in your timeline.
| | 01:26 | I like to do that just by clicking
underneath of the layers and now you can see,
| | 01:30 | neither one of them is highlighted.
| | 01:32 | Now when you go up to the Tool panel,
click and hold and let's use the Ellipse tool.
| | 01:39 | We're going to create an Ellipse in our
viewer, but before we do so, I want you
| | 01:44 | to look at the Fill and the Stroke.
| | 01:47 | These attributes are going to be applied to
the shape that we're going to end up creating.
| | 01:52 | So I want to choose a different color,
so click in the red box next to Fill and
| | 01:57 | grab the Eyedropper tool
and let's choose that green.
| | 02:00 | Now if we click OK, we're
going to make a green shape.
| | 02:04 | Now for the Stroke, I want to use the yellow.
| | 02:08 | So let's click in the Stroke box and
then here, see we have the Eyedropper, go
| | 02:12 | ahead and click on the Eyedropper.
| | 02:14 | When you click in the
yellow, then you can click OK.
| | 02:18 | Now this next value here will
create a width for the Stroke.
| | 02:23 | But let's click and drag in the
viewer to actually create our shape.
| | 02:28 | If you hold down Shift as you drag,
it will keep that shape in proportion.
| | 02:34 | When I let go, if we zoom in by
scrolling on the mouse wheel, and then deselect
| | 02:40 | this shape by clicking in the timeline
just anywhere off of any of the words
| | 02:45 | or switches, you can see we do have our
yellow outline and a shape layer has been created.
| | 02:51 | Now shape layers work in a very similar
fashion to type. Remember when we looked
| | 02:57 | at type, there were a bunch of
different subgroups underneath the main group.
| | 03:02 | When you create a shape using one of
the Shape tools, there is an option like
| | 03:08 | Ellipse, since we used the Ellipse tool.
| | 03:10 | Now when we expand that, you can see, I
can adjust the Ellipse Path or we could
| | 03:15 | keyframe the size or the position.
| | 03:19 | We can adjust the Stroke separately.
| | 03:22 | One of the fun things to do with the Stroke,
instead of it being solid, you can add dashes.
| | 03:27 | Now the Fill here is where we can set our Color.
| | 03:31 | Notice there's an option
for Transform for the Ellipse.
| | 03:36 | So for example with this, if I go to
Rotation, it is going to rotate, although
| | 03:42 | it's a circle, so let's
look at adjusting the position.
| | 03:45 | If I click and drag, notice it's
adjusting the position around its center point.
| | 03:51 | Now if we adjust the Anchor Point,
let's drag it up here, and then click and
| | 03:55 | drag on a rotation, you can see now it's
actually rotating around its own Anchor
| | 04:01 | Point, which is -138.
| | 04:04 | If you want to change this animation,
understand that the Transform options for
| | 04:11 | the layer itself are slightly different.
| | 04:14 | Notice if I drag rotation here, it's
rotating around the center point of the layer.
| | 04:20 | So you do have Transform
controls for the layer itself as well as
| | 04:25 | each individual shape.
| | 04:27 | Now this Add button functions
in a similar fashion to the text.
| | 04:31 | You can add a parameter to animate.
| | 04:34 | So for example, if I wanted to add a
different Fill, I could select that and
| | 04:39 | notice now that this new fill is
overriding the original fill, and I could
| | 04:44 | keyframe its color and its opacity.
| | 04:47 | See, if I click and drag its Opacity down to
0, check it out, now it goes back to green.
| | 04:53 | Now in order to see this more clearly,
if you look in the upper left corner of
| | 04:57 | your keyboard just under the
Esc key, there's a Tilde key.
| | 05:01 | If you select that with any panel
that's active, After Effects will
| | 05:06 | automatically make that panel
take over the entire interface.
| | 05:10 | This is excellent if you're dealing with
something like this when you know that,
| | 05:15 | okay, I want to create a shape that has
red at its starting point and I want it
| | 05:19 | to fade to green, well, I could adjust
my red here and my green there, I don't
| | 05:24 | necessarily need to see my viewer.
| | 05:26 | So if you press the Tilde again, we will
snap back to the way the interface was before.
| | 05:31 | We could do the same thing on the canvas.
| | 05:34 | Just make sure, before you click in
the canvas again, you want to grab
| | 05:37 | your Selection tool.
| | 05:39 | Now with the Selection tool selected,
let's click in the canvas and press the
| | 05:43 | Tilde key one more time.
| | 05:44 | In here you can see we have a full
screen preview of this individual panel.
| | 05:49 | I have to say, I always was a fan of
creating shapes just by using masks on layer solids.
| | 05:55 | But since shape layers came into the
scene, I love the fact that you don't have
| | 05:59 | to worry about whether or not
the shape fits on the solid.
| | 06:02 | Since the shape layers are synthetic,
After Effects is going to draw the shape,
| | 06:07 | no matter where it lives in the comp.
| | 06:09 | So draw away till your heart's content,
and by all means don't hesitate to add a
| | 06:13 | keyframe or too, and build some animations.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding switches and blend modes| 00:00 | Now that we've started to learn how to
create different kinds of layers, let's
| | 00:04 | see how we can use switches and modes
to add yet another layer of flexibility
| | 00:08 | to our compositions.
| | 00:10 | In this video we're going to blend our
graphics into the background video and
| | 00:14 | also use the transparency data of one
layer to create a mask for another layer.
| | 00:20 | Before we go too far into blend modes,
it's important to remember which renderer
| | 00:24 | we'll be using, as the Ray-traced
Renderer does not support blend modes, track
| | 00:28 | mattes or layer styles for 3D layers.
| | 00:31 | Now even though we don't have any 3D
layers in here, it's still important to
| | 00:35 | make sure the comp is selected and press
Command+K, because we want to go to the
| | 00:40 | Advanced tab and just get in the habit
of changing the Renderer from Ray-traced
| | 00:45 | to Classic if you know you're
going to be doing a lot of blend modes.
| | 00:50 | So let's press OK, and now I want to
look at our comp a little bit closer.
| | 00:57 | If we hover our mouse over the canvas
and scroll up with our mouse, then we can
| | 01:01 | press the Spacebar to grab our Hand
tool and move in a little more closely.
| | 01:05 | I want to start with this Charlie Winters
layer, and we're going to look at modes first.
| | 01:12 | Now if you don't see this column of
modes right here, you need to go to this
| | 01:18 | button in the lower left corner of the timeline.
| | 01:20 | The second one in will toggle your modes.
| | 01:24 | Within the modes we have
the Modes and Track Mattes.
| | 01:28 | Let's start with Modes.
| | 01:30 | If we click on the Normal pulldown here
and then scroll down so we can pop this
| | 01:35 | up a little more clearly, you can see
these are actually divided into groups.
| | 01:40 | While I'd love to sit here and go
through each individual one of these, we
| | 01:44 | don't have time for that;
| | 01:45 | we have to learn After Effects as a whole.
| | 01:47 | So I'm going to give you a tip.
| | 01:49 | When you look at these, you want to
look at them in groups and then kind of
| | 01:52 | choose different ones within the
groups based on what you know about how
| | 01:56 | that group functions.
| | 01:58 | To give you a quick overview, the
first category is the normal category, so
| | 02:03 | that's how layers typically work with
the transparency and that kind of thing.
| | 02:08 | The next layer here, this is
called the subtractive category.
| | 02:12 | I'd like to think of it
because it darkens things.
| | 02:15 | So let's choose Multiply for the
Charlie Winters layer and you'll notice that
| | 02:19 | any white pixel is actually knocked out.
| | 02:22 | And since it had a black drop shadow
underneath of it, we can still see that.
| | 02:27 | You can definitely click back into your
modes and choose some of the other ones
| | 02:31 | to see how they function.
| | 02:33 | But let's move to the next one;
this is the additive category.
| | 02:38 | These modes tend to lighten
colors by mixing with the layers below.
| | 02:43 | So let's choose Screen.
| | 02:45 | See when we choose Screen, any of the
black pixels are knocked out and then the
| | 02:50 | white pixels are allowed to show through.
| | 02:53 | I'm specifically using this Charlie
Winters layer because it is black and white.
| | 02:57 | But things get a lot more interesting
when you start blending colored layers.
| | 03:01 | So let's change our text layer
back to normal and then I show some of
| | 03:05 | these other groups.
| | 03:07 | If we select our Cyan Solid right here,
if I turn its visibility off and on, you
| | 03:12 | can see it does have quite an
effect in terms of building our graphic.
| | 03:17 | But it's already set to a Multiply mode.
| | 03:20 | Now just so we can accentuate how
things are working, let's press T to make
| | 03:24 | sure that our Opacity is set to 100%.
| | 03:27 | Now with the Cyan Solids selected, let's go
back into our modes and look at the next group.
| | 03:35 | The next group is called the complex category.
| | 03:38 | These modes blend with the layers
below depending upon how bright or dark the
| | 03:44 | colors are underneath or above 50% gray.
| | 03:49 | The difference category is interesting
because it kind of compares the layer that
| | 03:52 | we have selected with the layers below,
and that it blends those together based
| | 03:57 | on how different they are.
| | 03:59 | So let's just choose
let's say Classic Difference.
| | 04:03 | And here you can see we've
created all kinds of funky colors.
| | 04:07 | Now obviously that's not quite the
look I'm going for, but hey, if you wanted
| | 04:11 | something bright and colorful,
that's always a great place to go.
| | 04:16 | This group down here is kind of interesting;
| | 04:18 | it's just blends one color with one
or more colors of the components of the
| | 04:24 | layers below, whether it's the Hue, the
Saturation, the Color or the Luminosity.
| | 04:30 | I just like to think of this as it
plays with the colors and if I choose the
| | 04:34 | different ones, I can see how that works.
| | 04:36 | If you really want an in-depth look at
all of these different modes, you should
| | 04:41 | definitely check out Deke
McClelland's course in our lynda.com library.
| | 04:46 | It's called Photoshop Masking
& Compositing: Advanced Blending.
| | 04:50 | This is a great course and even
though it's in Photoshop, the engine behind
| | 04:55 | Photoshop and After Effects is the
same when it comes to blend modes.
| | 04:58 | So anything you learn in there will
directly translate into After Effects.
| | 05:02 | Now for these last two groups, I will
come back to these momentarily after we
| | 05:07 | learn about Track Mattes.
| | 05:10 | To use Track Mattes, I want to go
back up to our Charlie Winters layer.
| | 05:15 | Let's select that, and we can leave our
cyan set to this Classic mode for right now.
| | 05:20 | Now with our Charlie Winters layer,
the way Track Mattes work, even though I
| | 05:24 | want to use Charlie Winters as the
source, you need to start with the layer
| | 05:28 | directly below the text layer.
| | 05:31 | Now if I'm looking at the layer
below it's our kinetECO logo, and since
| | 05:36 | these don't overlap, I'll just move the
Charlie Winters text right above our Cyan Solid.
| | 05:42 | Now we should be able to see how this works.
| | 05:45 | If we've select our Cyan Solid layer
and go over into its Track Matte pulldown
| | 05:50 | and choose Alpha Matte, notice it's
automatically looking at the layer directly
| | 05:54 | above Charlie Winters.
| | 05:56 | So if we select Charlie Winters, now
it's going to use the alpha transparency of
| | 06:03 | the Charlie Winters layer to generate a matte.
| | 06:07 | Now it's also creating an interesting
mix, because after it's using the Alpha
| | 06:12 | Channel of the type to create a matte,
it's also still blending the cyan color
| | 06:18 | with the background layers.
| | 06:21 | I know you're thinking, well what if I
want this type to cut out absolutely
| | 06:24 | everything below it?
| | 06:26 | Well, you wouldn't want to use a Track
Matte for that unless you were planning
| | 06:29 | on taking all the layers below
and pre-composing those layers.
| | 06:34 | I know in previous videos we talked
about pre-composing and how blend modes
| | 06:38 | transfer or don't transfer based on
the Collapsed Transform button, but
| | 06:42 | honestly, this little tip I'm going
to show you is going to save you having
| | 06:46 | to think about that.
| | 06:47 | So let's change the Alpha Matte Track
Matte, back to No Track Matte and then
| | 06:53 | select the Charlie Winters layer, click
on its Mode pulldown, and if we scroll
| | 06:58 | down to the bottom, the last
two groups are kind of fun.
| | 07:03 | These are the matte categories and
basically the way they work, they're going to
| | 07:09 | take the Alpha data or the luminance
data and create a stencil or a cut-out of
| | 07:17 | that layer and apply that to
every single layer below it.
| | 07:20 | So let's choose Stencil Alpha and notice
nothing's happening, because we need to
| | 07:27 | turn on the visibility of the text layer.
| | 07:30 | Once we do that notice both the text and
its drop shadow are cutting through all
| | 07:37 | of the layers below.
| | 07:39 | And if I took this layer and moved it
down, you notice it's going through this
| | 07:44 | other shape, because this shape layer is above.
| | 07:48 | So if you want that cut-out just move it below
the text layer and now that's cut out as well.
| | 07:54 | I'm going to stop here, because I think
I've given you quite a lot when it comes
| | 07:59 | to learning about modes and Track Mattes.
| | 08:02 | Really, I have to say that I have a secret
love affair with switches and blend modes.
| | 08:06 | See, Track Mattes give you the
flexibility to animate a source and know that
| | 08:10 | any changes will be updated in the matte,
because that layer is always being referenced.
| | 08:16 | Now I think blend modes are awesome
because I view them as the secret sauce for
| | 08:21 | getting all of my layers to work
together to create one cohesive look.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Crafting custom shapes and masks | 00:00 | Now in this video we're going to take
what we've learned about creating masks on
| | 00:04 | layer solids and creating shape layers,
and just sort of continue building by
| | 00:10 | creating some complex masks and
custom shape layers using the Pen tool.
| | 00:16 | So to get started, let's look at our scene.
| | 00:18 | On the left, we have the kinetECO logo
with this neat sun effect in the upper left.
| | 00:23 | Now on the right we have
our yellow solid with a mask.
| | 00:28 | Now what we're going to do is bring
the sun into the corner of this area, and
| | 00:33 | we'll do that by using more
than one mask on this layer solid.
| | 00:38 | Go up the Rectangle tool and click and
hold until you get to the Ellipse tool.
| | 00:44 | Now I want to draw an ellipse in the
upper left corner of our yellow solid.
| | 00:49 | So if you click and drag, we
can start creating an ellipse.
| | 00:53 | Now after you start dragging, hold
down Shift and that will keep that shape
| | 00:58 | in proper proportion.
| | 01:00 | As I'm overlapping these two
shapes, I'm running into a problem.
| | 01:03 | Well the first one is the fact that
they're both filled with the exact same
| | 01:06 | color, but the second one is the fact
that they literally are both the same
| | 01:11 | colors in terms of the mask.
| | 01:14 | What we need to do is make Mask 2 a
little more high contrast from Mask 1 and
| | 01:20 | to do that, if you go on the timeline, next
to the word Mask 2 there's a yellow square.
| | 01:25 | Go ahead and click on that, and change
that yellow square to a blue square.
| | 01:30 | Now when we click OK, having chosen blue,
you can see we have a blue square and
| | 01:35 | our path is now blue.
| | 01:36 | Now whenever you have a path like this
that is already selected, you can press
| | 01:41 | V to grab your Selection tool and click on
anyone of these vertices to move the path around.
| | 01:49 | I'm just trying to recreate this sort
of sun layer over here, so I'll just use
| | 01:55 | the previous one as a reference, and
now it's time to go down to Layer 1, and
| | 02:01 | see how we can adjust the
interaction between these two masks.
| | 02:05 | If you click on Mask 1 and click on Mask 2,
you'll notice to the right we have pulldowns.
| | 02:11 | If you click on the pulldown,
you'll see we have options.
| | 02:14 | If I chose None for Mask 2, notice
there's nothing going on within this mask.
| | 02:20 | Now it's hard to tell whether or not
it's doing anything with this layer above,
| | 02:25 | because I have Add set for Mask 1.
| | 02:27 | So if I say None for Mask 1 now all of a
sudden you can see the entire layer solid.
| | 02:33 | So let's change both of those back to
Add and I want you to go to Mask 2 under
| | 02:39 | the pulldown and choose
Subtract and see what happens.
| | 02:42 | If you are at all confused, it's easy to
think of masks in terms of a math equation.
| | 02:48 | So you could say Mask 1 added to the
scene and Mask 2 is subtracted from the scene.
| | 02:54 | That way you can see the final
answer is going to be Mask 1 minus Mask 2.
| | 03:00 | If you click on the Mask 2 pulldown
again and change it from Subtract to
| | 03:04 | Intersect, sure enough Mask 1 gets
added to the scene and Mask 2 will intersect
| | 03:11 | with that, meaning anywhere it's intersecting,
| | 03:14 | it's going to fill it in.
| | 03:15 | So now that you understand how
multiple masks on the same layers work, let's
| | 03:21 | look at creating a custom
shape using the Pen tool.
| | 03:25 | In order to make sure that I'm not
adding yet another mask to Layer 1, let's
| | 03:30 | collapse Layer 1 and just click
anywhere off of the layer in the timeline.
| | 03:36 | Now I want to add kind of some squiggly
lines to appear around the outer side of the sun.
| | 03:43 | So to do that let's grab the Pen tool up
in our Tool panel, and look to the right
| | 03:48 | for the different options for the Pen tool.
| | 03:51 | The first thing I want you to pay
attention to is all the way over to the right.
| | 03:55 | That's the RotoBezier Option.
| | 03:57 | If yours is selected, I
want you to deselect that.
| | 04:01 | Basically, that gives a different set
of controls to your Pen tool that are
| | 04:05 | formatted for rotoscoping,
which we're not going to get into.
| | 04:09 | So just make sure that this is
deselected, and then on the Fill option here, hold
| | 04:14 | down the Alt key on the PC or Option on
the Mac and click not once, not twice,
| | 04:21 | but three times, till you
cycle through and get No Fill.
| | 04:25 | Now the Stroke I want to leave on
there, but instead of it being 2 pixels,
| | 04:29 | let's click on the number and change it to 6.
| | 04:33 | Now we've got our Pen tool ready to draw.
| | 04:36 | I'm going to start maybe down
here at this kind of 45-degree angle.
| | 04:41 | Click and release to make the first point.
| | 04:43 | Move your Pen tool off to the side and
click and drag for your second point.
| | 04:49 | When you click and drag,
you'll get the Bezier handles.
| | 04:52 | So let's move back up here and
click and drag to make another point.
| | 04:58 | And we'll go back here, click and
drag, and now you can see I've kind of
| | 05:03 | got this wavy shape.
| | 05:06 | It's not quite exactly what I was looking for,
but I want to show you how we can tweak this.
| | 05:11 | If you move your Pen tool back over
anyone of these control vertices, you can
| | 05:16 | click on one and then move it.
| | 05:18 | I can click on the first one and then move
it, so that's one way to move your vertices.
| | 05:25 | If you can click on any of the handles,
notice they're tied to the previous handle.
| | 05:31 | Well if you hold down Option before
you click on the handle, you'll get the
| | 05:36 | Convert Vertex tool which will allow
you to break the handle, so you could
| | 05:40 | actually get a custom
break over the Control Vertex.
| | 05:44 | So I'll just Command+Z to undo that last piece.
| | 05:48 | All right, let's deselect all of
our layers and look at what we've got.
| | 05:52 | As you can see, we have a custom shape
we created with compound masks, that's
| | 05:58 | two masks on one layer solid, and we
have a neat wiggly line we created using
| | 06:04 | the Pen tool, creating a custom shape layer.
| | 06:08 | So I hope you can see how flexible After
Effects is between using compound masks
| | 06:14 | and creating custom shapes with the Pen tool.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating variable-width feathered masks| 00:00 | Now in this video, we're going to
mask out the inside of this screen.
| | 00:04 | In the past, this used to
make me a little nervous.
| | 00:07 | But with the new Mask Feather tool,
this is going to be relatively easy.
| | 00:11 | So to get started, let's select our
Panel layer and go up to the Pen tool.
| | 00:16 | Instead of choosing the Pen tool, click
and hold and I want you to look at the
| | 00:20 | Pen tool and the Mask Feather tool.
| | 00:23 | Notice the key command G
will toggle between these two.
| | 00:27 | If you're used to using this command
to toggle through all of the different
| | 00:31 | tools, you probably want to go
under the Preferences and update it.
| | 00:34 | But if you're new to After Effects, I
would encourage you to leave this setting
| | 00:37 | the way it is because you'll
see it's relatively helpful.
| | 00:41 | With the Pen tool selected, let's
click in the corners of our screen.
| | 00:45 | But first, we should scroll up to
100% magnification, and make sure
| | 00:50 | the resolution is Full.
| | 00:52 | This way we can see exactly what we're getting.
| | 00:54 | Now I'm going to press the Spacebar and
with my Hand tool to kind of center this up.
| | 00:59 | Let's click through the corners of the
inside of the screen, and I know this edge
| | 01:03 | is little hard to see, but that's okay,
just get them rough in there for now.
| | 01:08 | You want to be on the inside of this
dark edge and click up to originating
| | 01:13 | point to set the mask.
| | 01:16 | In order to see this properly,
we need to invert the mask.
| | 01:19 | So select Layer 1 in the timeline and
press M, and we could either change this
| | 01:25 | from Add to Subtract or just select, Inverted.
| | 01:29 | Now before we get too far into how to do
this specific shot, I just want to give
| | 01:34 | you a quick overview of the Mask Feather tool.
| | 01:37 | So press G on your keyboard to bring
it up, and click on one of the edges.
| | 01:42 | I'm going to click on this right
edge and just hold and drag out.
| | 01:47 | There we go, you can see I'm creating a
feathered edge and that's no different
| | 01:52 | than what we used to be able to do.
| | 01:54 | But check this out.
| | 01:55 | If you click on the edge and drag back
to the inside, you can really feather the
| | 02:00 | daylights out of this thing.
| | 02:02 | You can also click again and drag back
out, and notice I have control as I'm
| | 02:08 | clicking and dragging as to how quickly
this variable edge is going to change as
| | 02:15 | it comes around the corner.
| | 02:16 | Now in order to move these around with key
commands, you can use your left and right arrows;
| | 02:22 | if you hold down Shift,
it'll move twice as fast.
| | 02:25 | If you hold down Shift and click on
the handles, you can select more than one
| | 02:29 | handle as you move around.
| | 02:32 | The up and down arrows will move you
in and out away from the Mask Path.
| | 02:36 | Just understand, when you're using
the left and right arrows, whether
| | 02:39 | you're using Shift or not, left moves down
counterclockwise and right moves them clockwise.
| | 02:47 | We have a bunch of points.
| | 02:49 | We need to delete these, so
we can actually mask our scene.
| | 02:52 | So press Command+A, since we
had one of these selected already.
| | 02:56 | Now they will all be selected
and you can just press Delete.
| | 02:59 | All right, now since this edge is so
dominant, I just want to feather this one edge.
| | 03:05 | And in order to do that, hold down Shift
and then hover over the edge and you'll
| | 03:11 | see this icon pop-up.
| | 03:13 | Now when I'll click and drag, it's
going to feather just this one edge.
| | 03:17 | Now obviously, layout here,
that's a little drastic.
| | 03:20 | So let's just feather it out maybe up
to around there, that's looking good.
| | 03:26 | I want to have a slightly soft edge all
the way around, and I know this, because
| | 03:31 | when we deselect, see how sharp
that is? That's not very realistic.
| | 03:36 | So let's go over to the left edge after
we select our mask again and just click
| | 03:40 | and drag a handle out, just a little
bit, and you notice something happened.
| | 03:45 | Notice I have this hard
edge here on this handle.
| | 03:48 | That's because with these edges set the
way they are, I have a sharp edge that I
| | 03:55 | need to just drag around to here.
| | 03:59 | See how this looks like a tear drop here;
| | 04:01 | let me zoom in here so you can see it.
| | 04:03 | See how this looks like a
teardrop and then this handle is round?
| | 04:07 | The Teardrop handles are
what are called hold handles.
| | 04:10 | They hearken back to hold keyframes.
| | 04:13 | These are linear, just like linear keyframes.
| | 04:18 | I want to just drag this close to my
hold edge and then bring it in, so it's
| | 04:23 | relatively close to the edge of my mask.
| | 04:27 | Now you can see if I hold the Spacebar
and grab my Hand tool and click and move
| | 04:31 | around, I have a nice soft edge
to the other part of this image.
| | 04:36 | Now let's set back to 100, and deselect our
layer so we can see what we're looking at.
| | 04:43 | This is starting to look a lot more realistic.
| | 04:45 | Honestly, if I were to keep tweaking
this, I would grab my Mask tool, press G
| | 04:50 | again, and then start
moving where these points are.
| | 04:54 | So now that you understand how the
Mask Feather tool works, you can use it in
| | 04:58 | all kinds of new situations.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Rotoscoping with the Roto Brush| 00:00 | So inevitably, you'll have a client
that asks you, hey, can you put this piece
| | 00:04 | of footage over a different
background? And you'll go,
| | 00:08 | sure, did you shoot it on green screen?
| | 00:09 | And they'll look at you
and go, what's green screen?
| | 00:12 | At which point, you'll have to look at
the footage and determine whether or not
| | 00:15 | you can fix it with a Roto
Brush, before you tell them no.
| | 00:19 | But in all seriousness, the Roto
Brush actually can help save you in some
| | 00:23 | of those situations.
| | 00:25 | So for example, in this piece of
footage right here, you can see we have this
| | 00:29 | sunflower and we have
this nice blurry background.
| | 00:33 | Now this is a pretty good
representation of a scene that you should be able to
| | 00:37 | use the Roto Brush to isolate
this sunflower from its background.
| | 00:43 | So to do that, we need to get
started using the Roto Brush.
| | 00:46 | Before you load up the Roto Brush, you
need to make sure that your Fast Preview
| | 00:50 | Options are set to Off.
| | 00:52 | The Roto Brush doesn't
particularly like Adaptive Resolution so let's
| | 00:56 | change that to Off.
| | 00:58 | And now to load up the Roto Brush you
need to double-click on your layer, so you
| | 01:01 | can open up the Layer panel viewer.
| | 01:04 | Now I'm just going to expand the viewer,
so we can see the entire piece of footage.
| | 01:08 | Now the Roto Brush is this tool up
here on the right-hand side of your Tool
| | 01:12 | palette in the upper left
corner of the interface.
| | 01:15 | It looks like a little guy with a paint brush.
| | 01:17 | Go ahead and click on that.
| | 01:19 | If we scrub through our scene, you
should notice, okay, the flower is
| | 01:23 | dancing, that's great!
| | 01:24 | But the exposure in the
general shot never really changes.
| | 01:28 | A lot of times if your footage changes,
you may want to start from a later
| | 01:33 | point in the timeline to where the foreground
and the background object are most different.
| | 01:39 | But right now, since this isn't
changing very much, we can go ahead and just
| | 01:43 | start at the beginning of our project.
| | 01:46 | Now that we're set at the beginning,
what you want to do with a Roto Brush is
| | 01:50 | click and draw inside the
area that you want to keep.
| | 01:54 | So notice I'm not drawing
all the way out to the edges.
| | 01:58 | Part of what the Roto Brush does is
analyze the image and determine exactly how
| | 02:02 | far out it wants to be in
order to create that selection.
| | 02:07 | So notice that it did a very good job here.
| | 02:09 | For the stem, I'm going to use a smaller brush.
| | 02:12 | Now a quick key command you can use for
any painting in After Effects is to hold
| | 02:17 | down the Command key and
left click and drag up or down.
| | 02:20 | So up, it makes it larger, down,
it makes the brush smaller.
| | 02:24 | On the PC you want to use Ctrl.
| | 02:26 | Now as I'm dragging down here, again,
notice I'm not going all the way out to the edges.
| | 02:31 | I'm just selecting the main portion
of the image that we want to keep.
| | 02:36 | For larger areas like this, again, I'm
going to Command+Left-drag and just drag
| | 02:41 | up and draw, there we go.
| | 02:45 | Okay that one is looking pretty good,
and I'll make this brush a little smaller
| | 02:49 | for this side and there we go.
| | 02:52 | When I drew this, notice in this area
down here it accidently drew too much
| | 02:58 | of the information.
| | 03:00 | The first thing I recommend doing when
this happens is just pressing Command+Z
| | 03:04 | or Ctrl+Z to undo that last stroke.
| | 03:07 | Sometimes you can just choose a smaller
brush and then redraw the stroke to see
| | 03:12 | if it interprets it properly the next time.
| | 03:15 | Now if it doesn't, just like this, you're okay.
| | 03:18 | There is another way to refine the stroke.
| | 03:21 | Now if I hold down Option before I
start drawing, notice my brush is changed
| | 03:26 | into this red circle with a minus symbol.
| | 03:30 | See the green plus means, I'm going to
add to the stroke, when I hold Option or
| | 03:34 | Alt on the PC, it means I'm
going to subtract from the selection.
| | 03:38 | So now I'm just going to draw outside
the area of the leaf making sure not
| | 03:43 | to draw into the leaf. Okay, perfect!
| | 03:47 | Now it's actually refined
the edge of what we were doing.
| | 03:51 | This looks pretty decent.
| | 03:53 | You can refine the edge of
this right here with a Matte tool.
| | 03:57 | So for example, if I wanted to smooth
out the edges, I could just increase this
| | 04:01 | number a little bit and wait for a
second and it will smooth this out.
| | 04:06 | Now here let's just crank this up
quite a bit, so you can see exactly
| | 04:10 | what's happening here.
| | 04:11 | See how the edges are kind of rounding out?
| | 04:14 | So we don't want the Smooth set to that
high, let's just set it to around 3 or 4.
| | 04:20 | Now that will smooth out my edges.
| | 04:22 | If we press Page Down to move to the
next frame, you can see it's doing a pretty
| | 04:27 | good job of tracking
what's happening in the scene.
| | 04:30 | If I press Page Down again, it's still working.
| | 04:33 | The way you want to work in the Roto
Brush is to literally work frame by
| | 04:36 | frame just pushing Page Down and
seeing how well it's tracing the object that
| | 04:42 | you're trying to isolate.
| | 04:43 | Now I want you to look in the
lower left corner of the Layer Viewer.
| | 04:47 | You see this yellow square?
| | 04:49 | That's letting me know, that's the
first frame that I set up for my Roto Brush,
| | 04:54 | and then this area with the pointing
arrow kind of icons, that let's you know
| | 05:00 | that anytime I make any changes to the
right side of this yellow frame, those
| | 05:06 | changes will propagate down
the length of this preview area.
| | 05:11 | As I am pressing Page Down here,
notice up here in the upper portion of the
| | 05:18 | Layer panel, I have this one
area that is not getting cut out.
| | 05:22 | Most of the time I would fix that
outside of the Roto Brush, but I want to show
| | 05:26 | you what happens if you
refine the edges of a selection.
| | 05:31 | So let's zoom into 100%.
| | 05:34 | I'm going to press the Spacebar and
click and drag with my left mouse button to
| | 05:38 | just grab the Pan tool and move up in the scene.
| | 05:41 | Let's make a very small brush, I'm just
holding down Command+Left-clicking and
| | 05:46 | just click inside while holding down Option.
| | 05:49 | And now we got a red icon and we can
just click and drag in this window, and
| | 05:54 | notice now it's created a new selection.
| | 05:58 | Now our preview area has continued to grow.
| | 06:02 | As you make these cursory changes to the
brush, that changed for those extra areas.
| | 06:09 | So if I just Command+Z to undo that, notice
you can see there is the shortened area.
| | 06:14 | If I go back up under Edit > Redo now it's
going to propagate further down the timeline.
| | 06:20 | Another tip with using the Roto Brush
is to make sure that you use as little
| | 06:26 | paint strokes as possible to
make adjustments in your frame.
| | 06:30 | Everytime you draw a paint stroke
and it's incorrect or you've made an
| | 06:35 | adjustment, the Roto
Brush will record that stroke.
| | 06:38 | So that's why I've been very
particular when I've made an incorrect stroke to
| | 06:43 | press Command+Z and undo.
| | 06:45 | That will not save that stroke, so
that way when I make my adjustment, that
| | 06:49 | stroke will propagate
throughout the length of this area.
| | 06:54 | Here let's switch our
view back to Fit up to 100%.
| | 06:57 | The idea with the Roto Brush is to
literally go frame by frame as you're
| | 07:01 | painting and make adjustments using
the Add to Selection option, just by left
| | 07:07 | clicking and dragging with the green
icon, or holding down Alt or Option to
| | 07:13 | select less of an area.
| | 07:15 | I'm just going to move to the end of my
propagated region here, which is about
| | 07:21 | one second, and I'll press N to end
what we've done so far, because I think you
| | 07:28 | understand the process.
| | 07:29 | You could continue going down frame by
frame and refining your matte, or not
| | 07:34 | refining your matte.
| | 07:35 | Let's see the results of what we've done up
to this point, which is only the first second.
| | 07:40 | I want to load up a RAM preview, and
in my Preview panel let's deselect from
| | 07:44 | current time, that way the RAM preview will
always load from the beginning of the comp.
| | 07:49 | When you press 0 on your keyboard,
notice now I'm going to get a preview of
| | 07:54 | the Roto Brush and up here in the info window,
it told me the Roto Brush was propagating.
| | 07:59 | Now notice that one corrective stroke
is popping into the Roto Brush selection
| | 08:04 | at the specific frame where we
first painted the Roto Brush.
| | 08:07 | Now I'm going to stop
playback here for a second.
| | 08:10 | As the Roto Brush is moving, the edges
of the matte are moving, so there is a
| | 08:14 | way to refine the edges of the Roto Brush.
| | 08:17 | But we are going to jump
into that in the next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Refining with the Roto Brush| 00:00 | Now if you're joining me from the
previous video, you know we've cut out this
| | 00:04 | flower from its
background by using the Roto Brush.
| | 00:07 | So we're going to continue with that
because creating the selection is only the
| | 00:11 | first part of the process.
| | 00:13 | Let's double-click Layer 1 to
open up the Layer panel and reset our
| | 00:18 | magnification to Fit to 100.
| | 00:21 | Now let's resize the interface to make
the timeline a little smaller and give us
| | 00:24 | a little bit better view of
the scene we're working in.
| | 00:28 | As you preview how the edges are working
within the Roto Brush, it's a good idea
| | 00:32 | to actually set your magnification to 100%.
| | 00:35 | Now within the Layer comp window down
in the middle, you can choose whether you
| | 00:40 | just want to look at the boundary of
the edge of the Alpha channel that we're
| | 00:44 | creating, or an overlay of the
selections that we're making, or if you click and
| | 00:49 | hold, you can go up to Alpha and it
will show you the edges of the matte.
| | 00:53 | Now let's go ahead and load up a RAM
Preview, so you can see the edges of the matte.
| | 00:58 | Notice how the edges are
kind of wiggling around.
| | 01:01 | That's happening because of
the movement of the flower.
| | 01:04 | But that movement is
actually called Edge Chatter.
| | 01:08 | So if we stop playback here for a second,
we can open our Effects Control panel
| | 01:12 | - I'm just going to go up under
Window and choose Effect Controls, and on the
| | 01:17 | left-hand side here we
have a bunch of matte options.
| | 01:20 | If we look at the matte options you
can see we can smooth the matte, which we
| | 01:24 | went over in the last video, but
I'll just show you here for recap.
| | 01:27 | If you crank it up, notice
it makes the edges smoother.
| | 01:30 | But that has a bad habit of actually giving you
a really poor matte, so let me just undo that.
| | 01:36 | That works well if you're trying to use
the Roto on something that's rather blurry.
| | 01:40 | You can choke the matte just by
bringing that number up or down.
| | 01:46 | So obviously to the left, actually it
does the opposite of choke, which gives it
| | 01:49 | more room, so just understand that.
| | 01:52 | Refine Matte is what we want to look at.
| | 01:54 | So select Refine Matte and the
first option is Use Motion Blur.
| | 01:59 | Go ahead and select that if your image
has a lot of motion blur, and within the
| | 02:03 | Motion Blur settings, you can adjust
the samples up to give a smoother motion
| | 02:07 | blur and/or adjust the chatter angle,
to match the type of blur in the scene.
| | 02:13 | If we close that, notice there's
another option for Decontaminate Edge.
| | 02:18 | If we expand the view of our Effects
Controls by dragging out to the right,
| | 02:23 | you'll notice this doesn't just decontaminate
the edge, it Decontaminates the Edge Colors.
| | 02:28 | So let's go back to our Layer comp
window and in the bottom, let's click on the
| | 02:33 | pulldown and change the
Alpha Channel from Alpha to RGB.
| | 02:38 | This way we can see exactly what
the edges of our image look like.
| | 02:41 | If you press the Spacebar we can
grab the Hand tool and click and drag.
| | 02:45 | I want you to look at this leaf over
here in the lower right corner of your comp.
| | 02:51 | Notice how the edges are a little jagged.
| | 02:53 | If you open up the Decontamination
options, we can't really increase the
| | 02:57 | Decontamination Amount.
| | 02:59 | If I decrease it, notice how this
edge has kind of a halo around it.
| | 03:04 | So we definitely want the
Decontamination Amount up at 100, and if we select
| | 03:10 | Extend Where Smothered, what this
will do is just make an adjustment to the
| | 03:15 | areas that you've actually started to adjust.
| | 03:19 | Now in order to select Extend Where
Smothered, we need to increase the
| | 03:23 | Decontamination Amount.
| | 03:25 | If we move up to the right, notice, now
all these stray pixels on the right-hand
| | 03:30 | side have disappeared.
| | 03:32 | Let me reset that back to 0 and
you can see how ragged that edge is.
| | 03:37 | But if we actually increase this amount,
it's going to deal with the colors and
| | 03:42 | make things a little bit more smooth.
| | 03:45 | Since we've increased our Decontamination,
if you select Extend Where Smothered,
| | 03:49 | this will adjust how the edge actually
works, based on this increase setting as
| | 03:55 | well as the Reduce Chatter setting.
| | 03:57 | If both of these are set to 0,
there is no reason to extend it, because
| | 04:00 | nothing has been smothered.
| | 04:02 | View Contamination; if you select that,
now you can see the amount of area
| | 04:07 | that's been decontaminated
along the edge of the matte.
| | 04:11 | Now there is one last
thing I want you to check out.
| | 04:14 | So let's deselect that last selection,
and let's actually hover our mouse over
| | 04:19 | the Layer comp window and press the Tilde key.
| | 04:22 | That's going to maximize this in our interface.
| | 04:26 | In the lower right corner
there's this button called Freeze.
| | 04:28 | And basically, once you've gone
through and adjusted your Roto Brush to the
| | 04:33 | settings you like, you should
freeze your Roto Brush selections.
| | 04:37 | What this actually does is allows
After Effects to apply the Roto Brush, so
| | 04:43 | every time you load up a RAM preview
and that kind of thing, it's not redoing
| | 04:47 | the selection using the Roto Brush.
| | 04:49 | This in essence is freezing
the selections you've made into a
| | 04:54 | pre-rendered section.
| | 04:55 | So once you're finished with the
Roto Brush, remember to freeze.
| | 04:59 | And if you need to come back and make
adjustments to your Roto Brush, just
| | 05:02 | understand you'll be prompted to
unfreeze your Roto Brush selections by
| | 05:07 | selecting this button.
| | 05:09 | So as you can see, the process for
refining the edge of your Roto Brush is just
| | 05:14 | as important as actually developing
the initial selection in the first place.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Animation 101Understanding keyframes| 00:00 | Now that we have a firm foundation for
understanding comps and layers, it's time
| | 00:04 | to dive a little deeper into
understanding how animation works.
| | 00:08 | In this video, I've laid out multiple
layers setup so we can actually drive
| | 00:13 | home all the different kinds of keyframes
that you can create and use within After Effects.
| | 00:18 | So to get started, let's select
Layer 1 and 2 and press U to open up any
| | 00:24 | of their animations.
| | 00:25 | And this should look relatively familiar.
| | 00:27 | We have some keyframes and I know
they're linear, because they're diamond shaped.
| | 00:31 | So load up a RAM Preview and
let's preview our animation.
| | 00:37 | As you can see here, it's a pretty
straightforward linear animation.
| | 00:41 | Now I'm going to stop playback by pressing
the Spacebar and click up here in my timeline.
| | 00:47 | I want you to click right around 4 seconds.
| | 00:50 | The reason I want to do this is to
set the work area, so press N on your
| | 00:55 | keyboard to set the work area.
| | 00:58 | What this is going to do is load up
only this first 4 seconds into RAM when we
| | 01:03 | do RAM Previews, since all of the
keyframes are set within the first 4 seconds.
| | 01:09 | So let's move forward and jump
into what Bezier keyframes are.
| | 01:14 | So turn off the visibility for Layers
1 and 2, turn on the visibility for 3
| | 01:19 | and 4, and you guessed it, select
Layers 3 and 4 by clicking on one and
| | 01:23 | Shift-clicking on the next and press the U
key again to open up these position keyframes.
| | 01:30 | I purposely have left these as linear,
because I want to show you how to
| | 01:34 | actually change between all
these different kinds of keyframes.
| | 01:38 | So to change these from linear to
Bezier, I'm going to click and drag a Lasso
| | 01:43 | around all those keyframes, even
though they're on multiple layers, it's okay.
| | 01:48 | Once all the keyframes are selected I
can just right-click on any one of the
| | 01:52 | keyframes and go down to the menu and
choose Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease to
| | 02:00 | change this from linear to Bezier.
| | 02:02 | Now with all the different keyframes set
to Bezier, let's load up a RAM Preview.
| | 02:07 | Again, I'm just pressing 0 on my
keypad to give you a RAM Preview.
| | 02:11 | And as you can see here the words
slide in, in a much more natural motion.
| | 02:17 | Now let's turn off the visibility of
Bezier and check out what roving keyframes do.
| | 02:22 | So click and Shift+Click Layers 5 and 6,
turn on their visibility and press the U key.
| | 02:29 | Now in here we have four
different linear keyframes.
| | 02:34 | And I added these extra keyframes to
kind of show you some of the different
| | 02:38 | things that happen when
you have multiple keyframes.
| | 02:40 | First thing, you know these lines on
the canvas represent motion path or
| | 02:45 | the animation path.
| | 02:46 | These are the paths that these
words are going to be traveling.
| | 02:50 | And the dots in between the path
represent the speed at which these words
| | 02:56 | are going to be moving.
| | 02:57 | So the closer they are together, the
slower they are moving, and the further
| | 03:01 | apart, the faster they are moving.
| | 03:04 | Roving keyframes are interesting
because they'll smooth all this motion out and
| | 03:09 | they do so by actually moving the
position of the middle keyframes.
| | 03:13 | So to show you what I'm talking about,
let's preview this animation first.
| | 03:17 | Press 0 on your keypad to load up a RAM Preview.
| | 03:20 | And you can see, as the words
bounce from keyframe to keyframe, they're
| | 03:24 | actually changing velocity.
| | 03:26 | Now let's press the Spacebar to stop
playback and draw a Lasso around all of these keys.
| | 03:32 | Again, right-click on any of them and
this time to activate roving keyframes,
| | 03:37 | you just want to click Rove Across Time.
| | 03:39 | Now you notice the first and last
keyframes are still linear, but these other
| | 03:43 | keyframes in between have
shifted in the timeline.
| | 03:46 | They are doing this because they
actually move where the keyframes live to
| | 03:51 | smooth out the motion.
| | 03:53 | So the words will definitely still
pass through each one of those points,
| | 03:57 | I'm just clicking and dragging to
kind of scrub through the animation, they
| | 04:01 | still pass through the points, but you
notice now all of the points have the
| | 04:05 | same exact spacing.
| | 04:06 | So if we load up a RAM Preview, you can
see with roving keyframes it's going to
| | 04:11 | move at the same velocity all
the way through the animation.
| | 04:14 | Now let me stop playback here for one second.
| | 04:17 | One other thing about roving keyframes,
if we click anywhere in the gray area in
| | 04:21 | the timeline to deselect all the
keyframes, with roving keyframes if you click
| | 04:26 | on either the first or the last
keyframe, as you drag them out, notice the
| | 04:30 | spacing of the middle keyframes will change.
| | 04:33 | And even if I try and click on the one
of these and move it, look what happens,
| | 04:37 | it changes from a roving keyframe
back to a linear keyframe, because linear
| | 04:41 | keyframes have a specific point in time.
| | 04:44 | Let's just Command+Z to undo that last thing.
| | 04:47 | Roving keyframes will rove based on where the
first and last keyframes are in your timeline.
| | 04:54 | Let's go to hold keyframes.
| | 04:55 | These happen to be one of my favorites.
| | 04:57 | Let's turn off the visibility of Layers
5 and 6, and select 7, 8, turn on their
| | 05:03 | visibility and press U. I'm just scrolling
down with my mouse so I can see these layers.
| | 05:10 | Now, again, we have linear keyframes.
| | 05:13 | Just draw the Lasso around and then
right-click, and instead of them being
| | 05:18 | linear keyframes, we can
choose Toggle Hold Keyframe.
| | 05:22 | When we do that, notice these
look kind of like a home plate.
| | 05:27 | And basically that's because they are
holding the previous keyframe's value
| | 05:32 | right up until the next keyframe.
| | 05:35 | So notice, there are no little
dots along our animation path.
| | 05:40 | That's because it's not going to be moving.
| | 05:43 | So press 0 to load up a RAM Preview
and you can see, now with hold keyframes,
| | 05:48 | they hold the previous
value until the next keyframe.
| | 05:52 | So now that you've seen some of the
different kind of cool keyframes we can
| | 05:56 | create inside of After Effects,
let's get started with our animations.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding and adjusting keyframes| 00:00 | It is keyframe animation that's really
at the core of about 90% of the After
| | 00:04 | Effects projects I've ever worked on.
| | 00:07 | And in case you need the definition
again, keyframes are just recordings of the
| | 00:11 | settings of one specific parameter at
a specific point in time, and there are
| | 00:16 | actually several ways to create
keyframes inside of After Effects.
| | 00:20 | So let's look at our project here.
| | 00:23 | You notice, if you double-click
the Keyframes comps just to make sure
| | 00:26 | everything is open, we have the kinetEco logo
and all the layers are set up in our comp already.
| | 00:34 | We have pre-comps for each one of the
words and we also have individual layers
| | 00:40 | for each one of the objects.
| | 00:42 | Now these happen to be Illustrator
files and everything is pretty much
| | 00:46 | already set up for animation, so all
we're going to do is animate how these
| | 00:50 | little circles appear into the screen and
then we'll fade the words on one after the other.
| | 00:57 | So this is going to be the final
resting place of everything in this animation.
| | 01:01 | Now to get started, let's select
Layer 4, the Yellow circle layer, and we'll
| | 01:07 | adjust the position keyframes
to begin the animation process.
| | 01:11 | So press P on your keyboard.
| | 01:13 | This just optimizes our
timeline so we're only looking at the
| | 01:18 | Position parameter.
| | 01:20 | Now with Position open,
we'll animate backwards.
| | 01:23 | I can go to 1 second here on the
timeline and record my first keyframe.
| | 01:29 | To record the keyframe, go to the
Position parameter and click on the Stopwatch.
| | 01:34 | See, I'm saying backwards
because we're starting at the end.
| | 01:37 | Notice I'm at 1 second, that's going
to be where our animation ends for this
| | 01:41 | one specific object.
| | 01:43 | If we move our current-time indicator
back to the beginning, 0 frames, now we
| | 01:48 | can go ahead and move this off the screen.
| | 01:50 | So to see things better, let's go ahead
and expand our canvas here just a little
| | 01:55 | bit so I can move this
all the way off the screen.
| | 01:59 | And just so I can see Layer 4, I'll
hover my mouse over the timeline and scroll
| | 02:03 | up until I see Layer 4.
| | 02:05 | Now since Layer 4 is already
selected, I can click and drag it up.
| | 02:10 | After I start dragging, I'm going to
hold down Shift, and that will snap the
| | 02:13 | movement along the Y axis.
| | 02:16 | Drag it up until it goes all the
way off the edge of the canvas.
| | 02:19 | Now you'll notice we have two
keyframes and we have an animation.
| | 02:24 | Let's go ahead and press 0 on our
keypad, and as you can see, the first
| | 02:29 | circle is animated.
| | 02:31 | Now I'm going to stop playback
just by pressing the Spacebar.
| | 02:34 | And instead of having to recreate all
of the keyframe animations for each one
| | 02:39 | of these circles, what I want to do is Copy
and Paste these keyframes onto the other objects.
| | 02:45 | Let's see what happens if I select the
position keyframes for this first yellow circle.
| | 02:50 | To select all the keyframes quickly,
just click on the word Position in the
| | 02:54 | timeline and now you'll notice both of
these keyframes are highlighted bright yellow.
| | 02:58 | If we scroll down to our blue circle
here, press Command+V, or just go up and
| | 03:04 | say Edit > Paste, notice nothing's happening.
| | 03:07 | So let's select our Position
keyframe and press Command+C to Copy,
| | 03:13 | or Edit > Copy.
| | 03:16 | If we go down to the Blue layer, we can
go to Edit > Paste, now when we press
| | 03:21 | P on the Blue layer, look, our keyframes are
pasted all the way down here on the timeline.
| | 03:26 | Well that's a problem.
| | 03:28 | And also, notice, now the circle is gone.
| | 03:30 | Well that's a problem too.
| | 03:33 | So let's start with the obvious, the first
one; this down the timeline, not so much.
| | 03:39 | We don't want to do that.
| | 03:40 | And basically what you need to do is
not have your current-time indicator down
| | 03:45 | the timeline when you paste.
| | 03:46 | See, whenever you paste keyframes they'll
paste exactly where the current-time indicator is.
| | 03:52 | So let's just Command+Z, undo that last command.
| | 03:55 | Now the other problem, see, this
Position keyframe, it's actually not only
| | 04:00 | recording the position of this object on the
Y axis, but it also recorded it on the X axis.
| | 04:06 | So what we need to do is just copy
the Y axis of these position keyframes.
| | 04:12 | I'm going to expand this
view up here a little bit.
| | 04:14 | And to do this, select the
Position parameter and right-click.
| | 04:20 | Now if you go to Separate Dimensions,
you'll notice I have keyframes for X
| | 04:26 | position and Y position.
| | 04:28 | Now since the Y position already
matches for all these other layers, all we
| | 04:33 | have to do is select the Y position
keyframes just by clicking on it, and say
| | 04:39 | Command+C or Ctrl+C on Windows, and
I'm going to press Home to make sure that
| | 04:45 | I've moved back to the
beginning of the timeline.
| | 04:48 | And now, if we press Command+V, you
notice it automatically split the position
| | 04:53 | keyframes and applied that set of
keyframes to that new parameter.
| | 05:00 | So we can do the exact
same thing for Green here.
| | 05:03 | So let's press Home and I'm going to say
Command+V, and now that's going to move down.
| | 05:09 | Now if I want to move these so they
kind of fall one after the other, all we
| | 05:14 | have to do is just slide
the keyframes in the timeline.
| | 05:17 | So I'll just expand my timeline view
here just a little bit and select the Y
| | 05:23 | position keyframes for Layer 2.
| | 05:26 | Instead of just selecting the Y
position keyframes, go ahead and select Layer 5
| | 05:31 | and just click and drag that layer
to start further down the timeline.
| | 05:36 | See, since the object is starting off
the canvas already, I'm just scrolling
| | 05:40 | out with my mouse, nobody is going to know
whether it existed before this point in time or not.
| | 05:46 | So let's do the same thing with the Green layer.
| | 05:49 | I'm going to press U to open up its
animated parameters, and that shows me
| | 05:53 | just the Y position keyframes, which I pasted,
and I'll just drag down the timeline here.
| | 05:59 | If we press 0, you can see 1, 2, 3.
| | 06:04 | Now we're going to start speeding things up.
| | 06:06 | You already know how to break out
keyframes and copy them and paste them, let me
| | 06:11 | show you how to actually
animate multiple objects at once.
| | 06:14 | It's pretty straightforward.
| | 06:16 | Let's select Layer 7 through 9.
| | 06:18 | Click on the first layer, Layer 7,
and hold down Shift and click on 9.
| | 06:23 | Now we can go ahead and press P
to open up the Position parameter.
| | 06:29 | There's a pretty neat shortcut you can
use to automatically create keyframes for
| | 06:33 | specific parameters at any time, and
basically the way that works, instead of
| | 06:37 | just pressing P to open up the Position,
what you want to do is position your
| | 06:43 | current-time indicator where you
want to set your first keyframe.
| | 06:45 | I want the motion of these
objects to end at 1 second.
| | 06:49 | So I'm going to move my current time
indicator to 1 second, and now I'm going to
| | 06:54 | press Option+P. And what that does,
holding down Option or Alt on Windows, it
| | 07:00 | sets the keyframe for whatever
parameter you hit the shortcut for next.
| | 07:06 | So P is the shortcut for Position.
| | 07:08 | If you press Home, in order to move all
these down, all you have to do is click
| | 07:12 | and drag on the Y parameter.
| | 07:14 | And I'm going to click and drag to the
right until they go all the way off screen.
| | 07:19 | Notice, since I had all three layers
selected, when I clicked and dragged on one
| | 07:22 | Y parameter, it moved all of them.
| | 07:25 | So to ripple this down, all we have to
do is just click and drag on the layer,
| | 07:30 | click and drag on the layer.
| | 07:33 | So now if we press 0, you see they all
pop down and now all we need to do is add
| | 07:40 | the Fade for each of the words.
| | 07:42 | So to do that, we can just select our
first word, which is Connect, and move our
| | 07:50 | playhead to where we want our first keyframe.
| | 07:52 | Here, let's go ahead and set it right
at the end of this animation, so right
| | 07:57 | about 2 second 5 frames.
| | 07:59 | And we can press Option+T,
that will set the keyframe.
| | 08:04 | Now I want to change this parameter
because I don't want it to start at 100%.
| | 08:07 | So I'll change it down to 0.
| | 08:10 | Now we have our keyframe set and
let's have this fade up over 1 second.
| | 08:14 | So to move down 1 second in the timeline,
I'm just going to click on the number
| | 08:18 | here in the timeline and press +100.
| | 08:22 | That's going to move down 1 second.
| | 08:25 | And now to have this fade up to set the
second keyframe, just click and drag on
| | 08:30 | the value for Opacity.
| | 08:32 | So I'm going to click and drag
it to the right and set it to 100.
| | 08:35 | Now to apply these keyframes to the
subsequent layers, all we have to do is
| | 08:40 | select both Opacity keyframes.
| | 08:42 | I'm going to do that in the timeline
just by clicking and drawing with a Lasso
| | 08:46 | here, and since I want to stagger
how these fade in, I'm going to move my
| | 08:50 | current-time indicator to about halfway
in between and select Eco and press--
| | 08:57 | actually I need to copy those.
| | 08:58 | So with our current-time indicator moved,
that's fine, just go ahead and draw a
| | 09:03 | Lasso over both the keyframes and
press Command+C or Ctrl+C to Copy.
| | 09:07 | Now we can select Layer 1 and
Command+V or Ctrl+V to Paste.
| | 09:12 | And again, if I press U, that will
open up the Animated parameter for that
| | 09:17 | layer, and let's do the same thing for ink here.
| | 09:20 | Let's move down the timeline with our
current-time indicator and press Command+V
| | 09:25 | or Ctrl+V, and again with U,
you can see how that's set up.
| | 09:29 | So let's preview our entire animation.
| | 09:32 | Press Home on your keyboard.
| | 09:33 | I'm going to deselect all the layers
here, and change my Magnification to fit
| | 09:39 | up to 100 and just kind of give a little bit
more room here, and press 0 on my keyboard.
| | 09:46 | So as you can see, we've now created
our first keyframe animation of the
| | 09:51 | entire logo animation.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Interpolating keyframes| 00:00 | We know how to create and edit keyframes,
but where the good animators end and
| | 00:05 | the great animators begin is
really determined between the keyframes.
| | 00:09 | That's known as keyframe interpolation.
| | 00:12 | You Flash folks might know this as Tweening.
| | 00:15 | It's adjusting the
changes between the keyframes.
| | 00:18 | Now there are two kinds of
interpolation to adjust in After Effects:
| | 00:22 | temporal interpolation
and spatial interpolation.
| | 00:26 | The easiest way to think of this is
temporal means time, so changes over time
| | 00:31 | like Opacity or Scale.
| | 00:33 | Spatial interpolation means
changes over space, like position.
| | 00:39 | So let's go ahead and press 0 and
look at a RAM Preview of our animation.
| | 00:46 | I'm just going to press the
Spacebar and stop here for a second.
| | 00:49 | You can see we have our
logo animating into the scene.
| | 00:52 | And if you're joining me from the
previous video, you might recognize this but
| | 00:56 | think, hey, these first
two layers look different.
| | 00:59 | And they do, I just went
ahead and trimmed the start point.
| | 01:01 | If I select Layer 3 and press T to open
up its Opacity, you notice I trimmed the
| | 01:07 | layer to start at the first keyframe.
| | 01:09 | I'm going to press J and move forward
so you can see this first keyframe is
| | 01:14 | set to a value of 0.
| | 01:16 | So before this keyframe, the Opacity
was always 0, so there's no reason to have
| | 01:21 | this extra layer here at the start.
| | 01:23 | So I just trimmed the start point.
| | 01:26 | This is a good habit to get into if
you want to optimize your render times.
| | 01:30 | Now move the current-time indicator
back to the beginning of the timeline and
| | 01:35 | let's select, let's say,
this Yellow layer, Layer 4.
| | 01:39 | Press U to open up any of its
Animated parameters, and let's scrub in the
| | 01:44 | timeline and see what we're looking at.
| | 01:47 | You can see we've got some different
things moving on here, but I just want to
| | 01:51 | focus on the animation of this yellow ball.
| | 01:54 | So with the Yellow layer selected, I'm
going to go ahead and solo that layer
| | 01:59 | just by clicking this box
right here in the timeline.
| | 02:02 | All these other layers haven't
disappeared, but this is just allowing me to
| | 02:05 | focus on this one layer and not be distracted.
| | 02:09 | Just so we can see things a little
better, I'm going to zoom in just by using
| | 02:12 | the scroll wheel on my mouse and press
the Spacebar to move down so I can kind
| | 02:18 | of center this up in the scene here.
| | 02:20 | As I scrub through, you can
see exactly what's going on here.
| | 02:24 | Now with these keyframes I
want to point out something.
| | 02:27 | Notice the Opacity keyframes here look
like diamonds and these keyframes here don't.
| | 02:32 | That's because these have
a different interpolation.
| | 02:35 | Now to see what interpolation is
applied to a keyframe, go ahead and select
| | 02:40 | the keyframe by clicking on it and you can
right-click and go to Keyframe Interpolation.
| | 02:44 | And here under Temporal,
notice we have Continuous Bezier.
| | 02:50 | See, I'm going to Cancel this for a second.
| | 02:52 | In the previous video we broke out the
position data into both X and Y position.
| | 02:58 | Now when we did that, by default,
what After Effects did is change the
| | 03:03 | interpolation from
linear to that Bezier setting.
| | 03:07 | So what we want to do, since we're going
to be making changes in general, what I
| | 03:11 | like to do is start with linear keyframes.
| | 03:13 | So I'm gong to click and drag a
Lasso around all these keyframes and
| | 03:17 | right-click on one of them and choose
Keyframe Interpolation and just change
| | 03:21 | the Temporal to Linear.
| | 03:23 | Now when I click OK, you can see
these are set to linear keyframes.
| | 03:28 | To see how linear keyframes are
represented graphically, what I want to do is
| | 03:35 | move my playhead back to the beginning
of the timeline, and let's click on the
| | 03:40 | Graph Editor here at the top
in the center of your timeline.
| | 03:42 | Looks kind of like an X, Y graph.
| | 03:45 | If you click on that, you
notice I have two parameters:
| | 03:48 | X Position and Y Position.
| | 03:51 | Notice they're color-coded.
| | 03:52 | Here is the X and here is the Y. Now,
the graph is set up in an interesting
| | 03:57 | fashion because this is the Speed Graph.
| | 04:01 | If I hover my mouse over the green
line here, you can see it's moving to be
| | 04:06 | exactly at 370 pixels a second.
| | 04:10 | Down here on the X, it's
moving at 0 pixels a second.
| | 04:14 | Now the way this graph works, if I
click only on, let's say, Opacity, it will
| | 04:18 | show me the changes in the
Opacity in terms of its velocity.
| | 04:23 | If I click only on X, it's only going
to show me X. If I click only on Y, it's
| | 04:28 | only going to show me Y.
| | 04:30 | Since the X position never really
changed, it's set to a value of 0 over
| | 04:35 | the entire time, because the object
is only moving on Y, we don't need
| | 04:40 | those keyframes anymore.
| | 04:41 | So I'm going to get out of the Graph
Editor and just draw a Lasso around the X
| | 04:46 | Position keyframes and press Delete.
| | 04:49 | Now we can focus just very closely on
what's happening on the Y parameter.
| | 04:55 | If I zoom in a little more closely
here, notice how these dots are evenly
| | 05:00 | spaced in my graph.
| | 05:02 | This is because it's a linear velocity,
and if we open our Graph Editor here,
| | 05:07 | you can see with the Y position selected,
it goes from 370 pixels a second and
| | 05:12 | stops in one frame down to 0 pixels a second.
| | 05:16 | What we want to do is ease the speed of
this, and the way to do that, we'll get
| | 05:21 | out of the Graph Editor and
start with the first keyframe here.
| | 05:26 | I want this to kind of speed up
like you would in a car at a stoplight.
| | 05:29 | When you stop and the light turns
green, you accelerate from 0 gradually.
| | 05:34 | So to do that, select the first
keyframe, go up under Animation > Keyframe
| | 05:40 | Assistant, and choose Easy Ease Out.
| | 05:44 | I know this doesn't make sense,
because it's the first keyframe, but you are
| | 05:47 | easing out of its current
state into a new velocity.
| | 05:51 | So now if you look, it's kind of
hard to see, but the dots are a little
| | 05:54 | closer together at the top, and then as you
move down, they get further and further apart.
| | 06:01 | Notice here at the bottom they
stay far apart and just stop.
| | 06:05 | So let's draw a Lasso around the second
keyframe and instead of going back up to
| | 06:10 | Animation, this time you can just right-
click on the keyframe and go to Keyframe
| | 06:14 | Assistant, choose Easy Ease In.
| | 06:17 | We want to ease it back into its current state.
| | 06:21 | So when I say Easy Ease In, okay, there you go.
| | 06:24 | Now you can see how close
these two little dots are.
| | 06:27 | And now if you look up here,
these two are much further apart.
| | 06:31 | So this is actually going to ease the motion.
| | 06:33 | If we press 0, you can see
it slowly came to a stop.
| | 06:37 | Let me zoom out here so you can see this.
| | 06:39 | We'll fit back to 100, and let's check
out the animation again. There we go.
| | 06:45 | It's a lot more natural motion.
| | 06:48 | Now let's select the Blue layer here
and press U to open up its keyframes.
| | 06:54 | I want to open the Graph Editor one more time.
| | 06:56 | If we select the Y Position keyframes
here, notice how the velocity starts at 0,
| | 07:02 | eases up to a high velocity of around 550,
and then eases right back down again.
| | 07:08 | See, if I select the Y Position
keyframes here, that had those funky eases on
| | 07:15 | them, notice the velocity is
very strange in how it moves.
| | 07:19 | That's one of the reasons why I like
to actually start by changing these
| | 07:23 | keyframes back to a Linear Interpolation.
| | 07:28 | That way when you look at it in
the Graph Editor, you can see exactly
| | 07:31 | what's happening here.
| | 07:32 | If I want to make these adjustments,
I can just right-click directly on the
| | 07:36 | keyframe, and make sure my first ease
is out and my second ease is back in.
| | 07:43 | Now if I select the Y Position in the
Blue layer and look in the Graph Editor,
| | 07:47 | you can see I've got the ease there as well.
| | 07:50 | I want to encourage you to keep going
through the rest of the animation and
| | 07:55 | easing your keyframes.
| | 07:56 | That way when you're finished, you
can see just how more natural the motion
| | 08:01 | of your keyframes are going be when
you pay attention to your keyframe
| | 08:04 | interpolation.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting keyframes in the Graph Editor| 00:00 | So let's check out this animation.
| | 00:03 | Just load it up in your RAM Preview
and you can see it works but honestly
| | 00:11 | it's not that exciting.
| | 00:13 | The word is kinetEco, kineteco, so let's
actually make it have a little more energy.
| | 00:20 | There are two reasons why this is kind
of meh, and the first one is the fact that
| | 00:26 | these are moving rather slowly, and the
second one, the fade in the words; it's
| | 00:31 | just not that energetic.
| | 00:33 | So let's go ahead and delete the fade
off these words by selecting the top three
| | 00:39 | layers and pressing T, and make sure
your current-time indicator is past the
| | 00:45 | rightmost keyframes so
they're all set to 100% Opacity.
| | 00:49 | And just click any of the stopwatches
and that will delete all the keyframes.
| | 00:53 | Now let's deal with the speed of these circles.
| | 00:57 | So select Layer 4 and Shift+Click to Layer 9.
| | 01:00 | Press U to open up all the animated
parameters and sure enough, we have our keyframes.
| | 01:08 | What we want to do is speed up everything.
| | 01:10 | So let's select the rightmost
keyframe for all of the different layers.
| | 01:18 | When I clicked on that I noticed that
I had accidentally moved the selected
| | 01:21 | keyframes so I just undid that for a
second, and now I'm just Shift+Clicking on
| | 01:26 | all the other layers.
| | 01:28 | Now as we drag these back to the left,
you will notice we can scroll and you can
| | 01:35 | see that, you know, like in this
second part of the animation, these circles
| | 01:40 | aren't quite lining up.
| | 01:41 | I'm just going to zoom in here a little
bit and you can see they aren't lining
| | 01:44 | up when they should resolve.
| | 01:47 | So what we need to do is actually
adjust when these keyframes are so that they
| | 01:53 | are actually happening on the same frame.
| | 01:55 | So I'm just going to park my Current
Time Indicator on the rightmost keyframe of
| | 02:00 | this Blue layer and make sure the
right keyframe in this half_Br1
| | 02:04 | layer is in the same position.
| | 02:06 | That way when we scrub through you can
see it's actually going to resolve at
| | 02:10 | the exact same time.
| | 02:12 | You can do that for the rest of these
layers but let's move on and adjust the
| | 02:18 | energy of these words.
| | 02:21 | And let's press Spacebar to grab the
Hand tool and just sort of reposition.
| | 02:25 | They're just kind of popping into the
scene and I'm just going to zoom back
| | 02:28 | out here in the canvas.
| | 02:31 | Now as we scrub through you can see the
words just kind of pop onto the scene.
| | 02:36 | What I want to do is have
the words scale into place.
| | 02:40 | So it looks like they are zooming
from infinity far away right up to where
| | 02:44 | they are right now.
| | 02:45 | So to do that, let's
press S to adjust the scale.
| | 02:49 | I could do this with a position
keyframe if we move this into a 3D layer but I
| | 02:54 | don't want to do that just yet.
| | 02:56 | Scale is going to work perfectly fine for this.
| | 02:59 | So let's keyframe backwards again,
instead of starting at the very beginning of
| | 03:04 | our layer, press I to make sure our
Time Indicator is at the in-point of the
| | 03:08 | layer and move down 10 frames.
| | 03:11 | So I'm just going to +10 there, and
click the Stopwatch next to the Scale.
| | 03:17 | Now if we press I to move back to
the beginning, we can change our Scale
| | 03:21 | parameter back to zero and
we have two keyframes set.
| | 03:25 | So if we load up a RAM Preview here,
you can see it comes in and it's pretty
| | 03:31 | cool, but you notice it's
moving in a constant velocity.
| | 03:36 | I know that for two reasons.
| | 03:37 | First reason I can see it, but
sometimes you won't always be able to see it.
| | 03:41 | But the second reason, these diamonds
are telling me it's actually linear.
| | 03:45 | So to see, let's open up the Graph Editor.
| | 03:48 | You can come up to the Graph
Editor button, or press Shift+F3.
| | 03:52 | As you can see, my Scale parameter is moving
at a constant velocity and then it just stops.
| | 03:59 | In the Graph Editor, in the lower left
corner, I have this one button that looks
| | 04:04 | sort of like a chart of some sort. If
you click on it here, we could change
| | 04:09 | between the Speed Graph or the Value Graph.
| | 04:12 | Let's go to the Value Graph and then
here notice now I can see it's going from
| | 04:19 | 0% scale to 100% scale.
| | 04:23 | And to adjust this horizontally, I'm
just going to click and drag here on my
| | 04:29 | Zoom slider and you can see now
I've got a nice linear move to this.
| | 04:35 | In the previous video, I showed you how
you could use Ease to smooth out animations.
| | 04:41 | So let's select this first keyframe just
by drawing a Lasso around it, and if you
| | 04:47 | look here on the bottom of the Keyframe
Editor, on the right-hand side, you can
| | 04:52 | adjust the different keyframes.
| | 04:55 | So this button in the lower right
corner of the Keyframe Editor will
| | 04:58 | actually create an ease out.
| | 05:01 | Now if we select a right keyframe, we
can click the other button to ease back in.
| | 05:07 | If we preview this, I'm just going to
move my current-time indicator forward and
| | 05:11 | load up our preview here.
| | 05:13 | You can see I have a smooth motion to this.
| | 05:16 | But even that is a little kind of boring.
| | 05:19 | So let's change our play range just so
we can kind of loop that one section.
| | 05:24 | Move your current-time indicator back up
in front of the first most keyframe and
| | 05:29 | press B. That will begin our playback
range and then move your Current Time
| | 05:34 | Indicator to around three seconds and press N.
| | 05:38 | Now when I load up a preview, it's
just going to cycle this one area.
| | 05:41 | It's kind of interesting.
| | 05:43 | Notice since I'm editing the Value Graph,
if I click and drag here, I can adjust
| | 05:48 | the handles for how this actually will scale up.
| | 05:53 | And notice if I drag up, what's going
to happen to the word, the value of the
| | 05:59 | scale of the word will
actually end up over 100%.
| | 06:04 | Sometimes this is actually really
good to do because it's going to give a
| | 06:08 | little pop to the word.
| | 06:10 | So just load it up in your RAM Preview.
| | 06:13 | You can see it's a little more fun now.
| | 06:15 | It just sort of pops up and pops in.
| | 06:17 | I'll stop playback, and I want to
accentuate how quickly that ramps up before it
| | 06:23 | makes that change and we can do that by
just clicking this left keyframe handle
| | 06:28 | and dragging it to the right.
| | 06:30 | Now what that's going to do is it
slows how quickly it moves out and then it
| | 06:36 | will exponentially get faster
and faster as you move up the line.
| | 06:40 | If you really want to accentuate it more,
you can drag up a little more and you
| | 06:45 | notice now we're going to go way large.
| | 06:47 | I don't know if that will work but
let's check it out. There we go.
| | 06:52 | So as you can see, when you use the
Graph Editor you can always make things a
| | 06:57 | lot more interesting.
| | 06:59 | Personally, I like to think of the
Graph Editor as the place to go when it
| | 07:02 | comes time to really polish the
movement of an animation, because after all,
| | 07:07 | setting the initial keyframes really only tells
you what's happening on those specific frames.
| | 07:12 | It's between the keyframes where
you end up getting the entire story.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding positional keyframes| 00:00 | Now if you're joining me from the last
video you know we went ahead and made
| | 00:04 | adjustments in the Keyframe
Editor to the Scale parameter.
| | 00:08 | In this video, we're going to make
adjustments to the Position parameter for the word Eco.
| | 00:14 | So if you just look at the RAM Preview
here, you can see we have Kinet pop-up
| | 00:18 | and then Eco just sort of appears.
| | 00:22 | So I want to have Eco move in a similar
fashion to the Scale effect that we did,
| | 00:27 | but we'll do it using Position and
we'll actually convert this layer to a 3D
| | 00:33 | Layer just by clicking this box, and now
you notice when I press P to open up my
| | 00:39 | Position data, I have a parameter
for Z. So it's X, Y, and Z. We'll work
| | 00:46 | backwards just like we did with Scale
by just moving our playhead a little bit
| | 00:50 | down the timeline here and
marking a Position keyframe.
| | 00:55 | Let's expand the work area duration
just a little bit by dragging to the right
| | 01:00 | and press I to move to
the beginning of the layer.
| | 01:03 | Now to see which way this is actually
going to move, let's click and drag on the
| | 01:10 | Z parameter and yes, we want to make an
adjustment all the way back by clicking
| | 01:18 | and dragging to the right.
| | 01:19 | Let's actually have this
disappear down to around 5,000.
| | 01:24 | There's a slight issue with this and
that's the fact the anchor point is off to
| | 01:28 | the left-hand side, but I actually kind
of like that this is going behind the
| | 01:34 | word kinet and really, if I want it
behind I can just drag it underneath kinet
| | 01:40 | because kinet is still a 2D layer.
| | 01:43 | So it's just going to sit right on top
of Eco thinking that it's actually behind
| | 01:50 | it, and it's going to give us the visual
trick that it looks like it's actually
| | 01:54 | peeking out from behind the word.
| | 01:57 | We have our first two keyframes,
let's preview this animation.
| | 02:02 | Okay, that start to look pretty cool
but I want Eco to kind of bounce out
| | 02:07 | there a little bit.
| | 02:08 | So let's add a third keyframe.
| | 02:11 | I'm going to move my playhead out to
the right here just a few frames past
| | 02:15 | where it was before, and I want this keyframe
to be exactly the same as the previous one.
| | 02:22 | And to do that, we'll use this Keyframe
button here on the left-hand side of the timeline.
| | 02:28 | That added another keyframe, so if we
press J we can move back to our middle
| | 02:32 | keyframe, and let's drag to the
left just so it pops out a little bit.
| | 02:37 | So if we scrub through you can see
it's going to pop out and then land.
| | 02:42 | Let's load up a RAM Preview
again and that looks pretty cool.
| | 02:49 | I want you to select all the Position
keyframes by clicking on the word Position
| | 02:53 | and open the Keyframe Editor.
| | 02:56 | Now in here you'll notice I
only have changes along the Z axis.
| | 03:05 | So if we scrub through, you can see
I've got kind of a sharp change that's
| | 03:10 | happening here and that's happening
because, if we look at our keyframes, these
| | 03:15 | are linear keyframes.
| | 03:17 | So to smooth this out, let's click on
this, and instead of clicking Ease down
| | 03:24 | here in the lower right, just right-
click on it and here we could choose
| | 03:29 | Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease.
| | 03:32 | Now when we choose Easy Ease, it looks
like nothing has really happened here
| | 03:36 | and something has, if you notice the velocity
down here, it's going to kind of smooth out.
| | 03:41 | But if you want to see things a little
more closely, what you need to do is zoom in.
| | 03:48 | See if I click on this to the right,
it's going to zoom in and here if I scroll
| | 03:53 | up in the timeline here you can see
it's kind of made this a little bit larger
| | 03:58 | in the scene, so I can
sort of see what's going on.
| | 04:01 | And let's just press the Spacebar to
grab the Hand tool and just sort of move
| | 04:05 | our canvas over so we can sort of
see what's going on here in our Viewer.
| | 04:11 | I want to try and draw handles out
from this parameter and if you hold down
| | 04:15 | Option, it looks like you
can click on this and drag out.
| | 04:19 | But you notice nothing is happening
here and that's because these are Position
| | 04:23 | keyframes and they actually have all
three parameters X, Y and Z active.
| | 04:30 | In order to actually control the value
of an individual parameter with handles,
| | 04:35 | you need to break it out into its own
separate value, and the way you do that
| | 04:40 | from within the Graph Editor is to
click this button here in the bottom.
| | 04:44 | Now when I click on that, notice if I
click and drag directly on the keyframe,
| | 04:50 | it just kind of snaps and moves around.
| | 04:52 | That's not what I want to do.
| | 04:54 | Okay, so let's undo that, Command+Z, and
now you want to hover over the point and
| | 05:00 | press Alt or Option and click and drag
and now this is going to give you the
| | 05:05 | ability to draw some
handles out over this keyframe.
| | 05:09 | Now one of the things that's interesting
about dealing with this, is notice I can
| | 05:14 | change how long the handle is or how
smooth this change is on one side but not
| | 05:22 | really match it on the other.
| | 05:24 | If I click back on this side, notice
even though they're working in tandem, I
| | 05:30 | still have to kind of adjust
if I want the lengths to change.
| | 05:35 | If I wanted this to kind of break apart,
here let's scrub down here so you can
| | 05:40 | see what's happening,
it's going down back across.
| | 05:44 | If I wanted there to be like a sudden
change, I can hold down Alt or Option
| | 05:48 | again, but when you click on the handle,
it will actually allow you to make a
| | 05:53 | change independent of the other side.
| | 05:56 | This way, now when it comes up, it's
just going to stop rather abruptly and
| | 06:01 | then kind of bounce out.
| | 06:03 | Well here let's preview that and you can see--
| | 06:08 | Eh, it's kind of okay. It's not
exactly what I was looking for, so I'll just
| | 06:13 | drag this handle back down here again.
| | 06:17 | If I hold down Option and click on the
handle again, it sort of snaps it back so
| | 06:21 | we're making adjustments like we did before.
| | 06:24 | So now let's preview this animation.
| | 06:28 | And that's pretty cool, that really gives a
kind of an organic sort of realistic bounce.
| | 06:33 | Notice it kind of bounces past and
then down again and then sort of wiggles
| | 06:38 | almost like it's in Jello.
| | 06:39 | So this is kind of one of the things
that you want to do when you want your
| | 06:43 | animations to kind of really step up a level.
| | 06:46 | You want to accentuate, or over
accentuate, the specific moves that they are
| | 06:51 | creating, and a lot of times I find the
fastest, easiest way of doing that is by
| | 06:57 | making those changes in the Keyframe Editor.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Controlling animation with parenting and the pick whip | 00:00 | Now in this video, we're going
to dive into some pretty advanced
| | 00:04 | animation techniques.
| | 00:05 | So if you just kind of stick with me, we are
going to get through some really cool things
| | 00:10 | really quickly and hopefully,
you'll learn not only a little bit about
| | 00:14 | parenting, the pick whip, and Null
Objects, but you'll also learn a little bit
| | 00:20 | how to troubleshoot, because a lot of
times when you're designing, things won't
| | 00:24 | work exactly how you're expecting them to.
| | 00:26 | So you need to be able to have a Plan B.
| | 00:28 | So let's get started.
| | 00:30 | Load up a RAM Preview of the
animation and let's check it out.
| | 00:34 | As you can see I've got this kind of
cool funky logo animation, but there are
| | 00:38 | still some things that we could
do to kind of take it over the top.
| | 00:42 | Now just stop playback there, and I
want to talk about where we're headed.
| | 00:47 | So first thing, I like these circles
and I think right now they are not getting
| | 00:53 | the respect they deserve, because they
are too small and off to the left when
| | 00:57 | the animation starts.
| | 00:59 | And I really love when these words
come in, but I feel like the fact that
| | 01:03 | they're bouncing and coming in, they're
not really that connected to these circles.
| | 01:07 | So I want to add some animation.
| | 01:09 | We're going to make the movement of
this word drive the color of these circles.
| | 01:17 | Lastly, we can just let the rest of it
sort of play out, because it looks really
| | 01:22 | nice in terms of its
design and how it's positioned.
| | 01:25 | So to zoom in on all these circles, let's
look at what's going on with these layers.
| | 01:31 | Select layer 4 and Shift+Click through
layer 9 and press the U key to open up
| | 01:37 | any Animated parameters.
| | 01:39 | As you can see, we've got a
lot of Position keyframes.
| | 01:43 | So if I wanted to try and reposition
these, if I just clicked and dragged, you'll
| | 01:47 | notice, well, now I've just
added many, many more keyframes.
| | 01:50 | That's not what we want to do.
| | 01:53 | You should create a Null Object.
| | 01:55 | Anytime you're trying to create many
objects and reposition them, but they
| | 01:59 | already have animation
applied to them, try a Null Object.
| | 02:03 | So select layer 1, go up under
Layer, and choose New > Null Object.
| | 02:09 | Even though it looks like this is
visible on the screen and even though you can
| | 02:13 | click on it and move it around.
| | 02:15 | Let me just undo the position change there.
| | 02:17 | Rest assured, when you go to render
your animation, the Null Object will not
| | 02:22 | render in your scene.
| | 02:24 | Let's go ahead and press P for the
Null Object and select all of the other
| | 02:31 | layers in our animation.
| | 02:33 | So I'm going to click on the first
comp there and Shift+Click all the way
| | 02:37 | through the layer 10.
| | 02:41 | Now with all the layers selected, we
want to change the Parent property.
| | 02:45 | Now there are two ways to
parent one layer to another layer.
| | 02:49 | One is by using the pick
whip, which is right here.
| | 02:53 | If we click on the pick whip for one of
the layers and drag it up to the Null,
| | 02:58 | it will choose that Null Object.
| | 03:00 | I'll just Command+Z to undo that.
| | 03:03 | Another way is by clicking on the
pulldown and choosing the layer, and notice it
| | 03:07 | populates for all of them.
| | 03:09 | If you didn't see this Parent column,
right-click next to Layer Name and go to
| | 03:13 | Columns and choose Parent.
| | 03:16 | Make sure it's active.
| | 03:17 | I'm not going to choose that right now,
because that'll in turn hide it, since
| | 03:20 | it's already active.
| | 03:22 | So now that all the layers are the child
of layer 1, go ahead and click and move
| | 03:28 | the Null Object around the scene.
| | 03:31 | Since I'm focusing right on these
circles, I could have positioned the Null
| | 03:35 | right in the middle of the circles
before I made my adjustment, but I really
| | 03:39 | don't have to worry about that.
| | 03:41 | That's because I'm going to use
some scrubbing and some basic timeline
| | 03:46 | adjustment techniques to fix this.
| | 03:48 | So first things first, let's undo
where we moved our logo, because we do want
| | 03:53 | it to resolve here.
| | 03:55 | So let's choose when we want it to
resolve to that position and I want it to be
| | 03:59 | in that position just
before the word kinet pops up.
| | 04:02 | So let's position our playhead to around
204 and add our first Position keyframe
| | 04:08 | for the Null Object.
| | 04:10 | Let's move our current-time indicator
forwards and right about here at 116 let's
| | 04:17 | add a second keyframe.
| | 04:18 | I'm just going to click this diamond
here on the left to add the keyframe.
| | 04:23 | I've set my Position keyframes, let's
go ahead and move the position just by
| | 04:27 | clicking and dragging on the X axis,
and here I can click and drag on the Y
| | 04:32 | axis down a little bit.
| | 04:34 | Now that's nice and center,
but I want to add some scale.
| | 04:37 | So I'm going to hold Shift and press S,
so Position doesn't go away, but I can
| | 04:42 | access the Scale parameter.
| | 04:44 | Let's press K to move to the second
keyframe and add our first Scale parameter,
| | 04:50 | because I want it to scale to this 100%.
| | 04:52 | Let's press J and scale this way, way, way up.
| | 04:57 | Now notice when I scale this up, I'm
going to have to reposition things.
| | 05:02 | And that's the case for why you would
actually position the Null Object before
| | 05:08 | you made the change.
| | 05:09 | But again, part of this video I want you to
learn how to just sort of roll with adjustments.
| | 05:14 | So as you can see here, I've got my
animation up tight and then it zooms back
| | 05:19 | to reveal our text.
| | 05:22 | If we move our current time
indicator up here, you'll notice the edges of
| | 05:25 | this look kind of blurry, and that's
because these are vector objects, but
| | 05:29 | they are scaled up to 351%.
| | 05:32 | But the vector objects were not
actually activated to be vector.
| | 05:38 | So what you need to do is select all
of these Illustrator layers just by
| | 05:41 | clicking on one and Shift+Clicking on
the other, and click on the Continuously
| | 05:45 | Rasterize button which is
this one that looks like the sun.
| | 05:48 | You want to activate it for all of those
layers just by clicking in the box below.
| | 05:52 | Now we have nice, crisp, sharp lines.
| | 05:56 | It may appear a little jagged, but
that's just because we're viewing it at 50%.
| | 06:00 | See if I looked at it at 100,
you can see beautiful sharp lines.
| | 06:04 | Let's change magnification back to 50.
| | 06:07 | You can see I have my Position and
Scale keyframes and this movement is going
| | 06:13 | to be rather linear.
| | 06:17 | Not quite what I'm looking for.
| | 06:20 | So let's just add Eases
to both of these keyframes.
| | 06:23 | Click and drag and choose
Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease In.
| | 06:28 | I'm going to click and drag a Lasso
around the other keyframes, right-click on
| | 06:31 | them, Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease Out.
| | 06:34 | Now it's going to give that smooth
motion back, but also I want to go ahead and
| | 06:40 | animate the colors of these objects.
| | 06:44 | The way we'll do this, we'll have the
scale of the word kinet actually drive the
| | 06:49 | color change of each one
of these little circles.
| | 06:53 | The circle I want to change for this
specific example will be this green circle here.
| | 06:59 | In order to change the hue I want to
apply a Hue/Saturation effect adjustment.
| | 07:03 | So we go to Effects > Color
Correction, and choose Color Balance (HLS).
| | 07:08 | That gives me the Hue,
Lightness, and Saturation adjustments.
| | 07:13 | In order to have this effect get driven
by the scale I need to actually select
| | 07:20 | what parameter I want to change as
the scale of this object changes.
| | 07:25 | So select the Hue parameter here and we
need to actually zoom in on our timelines.
| | 07:31 | So let's make our timeline a little larger and
I'll scroll up until I can get to the word kinet.
| | 07:37 | I'll select layer 2 and press S to open
up the Scale parameter, and go back down
| | 07:43 | and reselect my Hue.
| | 07:45 | The reason you want the word Hue
selected is you have to have the specific
| | 07:49 | parameter highlighted when you go up
under Animation and choose Add Expression.
| | 07:55 | Now with this Expression set up to be
applied, it's actually pink and waiting
| | 08:01 | for me to click on the pick whip and
tell it what parameter is going to adjust
| | 08:06 | the change in the hue.
| | 08:08 | Now look what happens.
| | 08:09 | When I click on this pick whip and drag
it up to the word Scale, notice nothing
| | 08:14 | happens until I press Enter on my keyboard.
| | 08:17 | And notice what happened when I pressed
Enter, it said okay, well, the scale is
| | 08:21 | 100, and so your hue change needs to be 100.
| | 08:25 | Well that's a problem because this
is a logo and we know when the scale is
| | 08:30 | finished animating I want
it to have the correct color.
| | 08:34 | So what we need to do is move back to the
last Scale keyframe and look at the parameter.
| | 08:40 | It's set at 100.
| | 08:41 | So to edit this expression, I can
just click on the type and click one more
| | 08:46 | time to make sure that the cursor is active
all the way on the right side of the words.
| | 08:52 | And I'm going to type -100 at the end.
| | 08:56 | What this will do is offset that animation.
| | 09:00 | So now when this is at 100,
this will be set to -100.
| | 09:06 | So now when the circles animate in
they will be the wrong colors, but that's
| | 09:11 | okay because when the word kinet comes
in it will resolve to the proper color.
| | 09:17 | I encourage you to try and do the same
thing for all of the following circles.
| | 09:22 | Just remember, you need to go up under
Effects and apply a Color Balance effect
| | 09:28 | before you can select the specific
parameter and add the chosen expression.
| | 09:34 | So we covered a lot of things right now.
| | 09:37 | But if you made it through this far I
want you to feel happy and encouraged,
| | 09:41 | because these were some pretty advanced topics.
| | 09:44 | Also relax, take a breath, because
throughout the rest of this course we're
| | 09:49 | definitely going to be using Null Objects,
parenting, and expressions to further
| | 09:54 | drive your creative animations.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding animation paths| 00:00 | When you create animations with
Position keyframes, when you have the layers
| | 00:04 | selected, you may notice this
line that pops up in your viewer.
| | 00:08 | This line is letting you know that
there is spatial data and Position
| | 00:13 | keyframes set on your canvas.
| | 00:15 | Even though it's a visual representation
of what's going on, it's also another
| | 00:19 | way to control your animations.
| | 00:21 | So let me show you
exactly what I'm talking about.
| | 00:24 | If we scrub back through here, you
notice, okay, well, I've got a box here and
| | 00:29 | I've got these dots moving along, and
here I'll just move up a second, and you
| | 00:33 | can see I have a second box there.
| | 00:36 | Each one of these is
actually one of the keyframes.
| | 00:39 | You can click directly on the boxes and
move them around and notice down here,
| | 00:44 | my Position data is changing,
because I'm actually moving that keyframe.
| | 00:49 | Let me just undo that last move.
| | 00:52 | You also have Bezier handles on these
lines as well, and they're kind of hard to see.
| | 00:57 | So what I'm going to do is actually
create a curvy animation here and then I'll
| | 01:02 | show you the handles.
| | 01:03 | So if I want this object to start up
here and then kind of curve out here and
| | 01:07 | then come back down, it might make
sense to move your playhead kind of in the
| | 01:11 | middle where you'd want the new
keyframe to be set, and just move the shape.
| | 01:16 | So you want to do that, and now
I can more clearly see the Bezier handles.
| | 01:20 | So if you just click and drag, notice now
I'm changing the motion path of this object.
| | 01:27 | If we preview this, you'll notice it's
not the smoothest animation. Let me
| | 01:34 | just stop playback there.
| | 01:36 | Since you have these Bezier handles,
as a general rule, whenever you're
| | 01:39 | trying to create a path that kind of has
curves, you want to do it with as few
| | 01:43 | keyframes as possible.
| | 01:44 | It's just going to make things
move that much more smoothly.
| | 01:47 | So let's actually select this
middle keyframe and press Delete.
| | 01:51 | Now if I click directly on one of the
keyframes, I can adjust the Bezier
| | 01:56 | handles, and notice I can still get kind of a
nice S curve just by adjusting the motion path.
| | 02:04 | If we add Ease on the beginning and
the end of these, you can accentuate
| | 02:08 | the motion and the velocity making
the little dots along the line here
| | 02:13 | change in their space.
| | 02:14 | But for now let's check this animation out.
| | 02:19 | So as you can see it's much more smooth.
| | 02:22 | But I know you're thinking to yourself,
well, what if I want to actually have, I
| | 02:26 | don't know, a complex path?
| | 02:28 | Like, what if I want this
to move in a perfect circle?
| | 02:31 | Well I'm not going to sit there and
try and frame out each individual section
| | 02:35 | of the animation and then make a
perfect circle. That would take forever.
| | 02:39 | But what you can do is actually use
any masks or any paths, like straight out
| | 02:44 | of Illustrator, or Photoshop, or even
here on my background gradient; if I press
| | 02:48 | M, I can open up my Masks and here you can
see out the Mask Path that I have already drawn.
| | 02:54 | I drew it with the Ellipse tool up here.
| | 02:57 | This mask isn't doing anything, because
it's set to do nothing at the None setting.
| | 03:03 | So what I can do is actually select
this Mask Path if I want, let's say, this
| | 03:08 | object to move on this circle.
| | 03:11 | So when I select it, I can go up under
Edit and choose Copy, and now let's select
| | 03:17 | the blue shape and instead of having
it travel along this path, let's delete
| | 03:23 | those Position keyframes, and I'll
move my current-time indicator to the
| | 03:27 | beginning of the timeline and
press Command+V, which is Paste.
| | 03:32 | Now since I had Position-selected it,
it automatically placed that animation as
| | 03:37 | Position keyframes and you'll
notice it created several keyframes.
| | 03:43 | And notice I have a linear
keyframe here and a linear keyframe here.
| | 03:47 | If I just click on one of them I can
stretch out the keyframes, because these
| | 03:51 | ones in-between here are roving keyframes.
| | 03:55 | And if you need a refresher on all the
different kinds of keyframes, definitely
| | 03:58 | go back and watch the
first video on this chapter.
| | 04:01 | But as you can see, when you paste
animation paths you can actually create custom
| | 04:07 | animations relatively quickly.
| | 04:09 | Now there's one last tip I want to give
you when you're pasting animation paths.
| | 04:13 | Instead of pasting it directly to the object,
you might want to try pasting to a Null Object.
| | 04:19 | Let me show you what I'm talking about.
| | 04:22 | Let's delete these Position
keyframes for this blue shape.
| | 04:25 | I'm going to go up under
Layer and choose New Null Object.
| | 04:29 | Now open the Position data for this
Null Object by pressing P, and then select
| | 04:36 | the position and press Command+V
or Ctrl+V to paste those keyframes.
| | 04:41 | Now the Null Object is
going to travel along this path.
| | 04:45 | What this does, it allows me to take this
blue object and make it the child of the Null.
| | 04:50 | So select the blue layer and grab
your pick whip under the Parent section.
| | 04:56 | If you don't see Parent in your timeline,
right-click up in this gray bar and go
| | 05:00 | to Columns and make sure it's active.
| | 05:03 | I'm going to click on the pick
whip and point it up to Null 2.
| | 05:08 | Notice the Null is going to move,
but now also my shape is moving.
| | 05:14 | What this is going to allow me to do--I
can move my current-time indicator to
| | 05:19 | let's say, the left side of the circle,
and now I can actually start offsetting
| | 05:24 | the motion of this animation.
| | 05:28 | So for example, if I wanted this to
drift to the left I could just click and
| | 05:32 | drag on the X parameter to the
left and set my first keyframe.
| | 05:36 | Now if we rewind back to
the top, it's kind of offset.
| | 05:39 | So I just want to set that back to 0.
| | 05:42 | So now as it travels along the path
it's going to kind of spin out sideways.
| | 05:47 | So we could go around and continue
adding that to the other parts of the path,
| | 05:51 | but what I want to do is just
deselect a layer and preview our animation.
| | 05:59 | So as you can see it's drifting off the path.
| | 06:01 | If you want to see it a little
bit better, go ahead and select your
| | 06:04 | Position keyframes.
| | 06:05 | That way when you scrub through the
timeline here, you can see how it's
| | 06:09 | drifting off the path.
| | 06:10 | Now I definitely encourage you to
keep going through this and making
| | 06:14 | adjustments to your blue shape just so
you can kind of get a better grasp on
| | 06:19 | how much extra control you can get
by using custom animation paths and
| | 06:25 | parenting with a Null Object.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Timing to audio| 00:00 | So in this video we're going to learn
how to preview audio and add some markers
| | 00:05 | to our scenes so we can time
things out for animation later.
| | 00:09 | Now even though our scene looks
rather busy, this will make sense once we
| | 00:12 | actually start editing the appearance of
these objects to the beat of the music.
| | 00:17 | Now since this is a rather jumbled scene,
I'm just going to turn the visibility
| | 00:20 | of all these layers off
except for the background layer.
| | 00:24 | Now since I do want to control the
appearance of these layers as they move
| | 00:28 | throughout the scene, I just want to
have a general count so I can know how many
| | 00:33 | markers I want to add to my music.
| | 00:36 | So if we count from layer 1, we
have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 is the
| | 00:44 | background layer.
| | 00:45 | So six elements obviously if you look
at the number of the layers that would
| | 00:49 | tell you the same thing as well.
| | 00:51 | Now select our layer 8.
| | 00:54 | The way you preview audio in After
Effects is by using the period key on
| | 00:58 | your keypad.
| | 00:59 | Now when you hit the period key on
your keypad, music will play back in real
| | 01:04 | time, and then you can add markers in
real time by pressing the Asterisk key
| | 01:09 | on your keypad.
| | 01:10 | Now the corresponding keystrokes if
you're on a keyboard that doesn't have
| | 01:15 | a keypad, it's Ctrl+. and Ctrl+8 in order
to actually add marker.
| | 01:22 | So Ctrl+. to preview the audio, Ctrl+8
to add the markers.
| | 01:27 | So let's get started by previewing the audio.
| | 01:30 | I'm going to select layer
8 and press the period key.
| | 01:33 | (music playing)
| | 01:40 | Okay, you can press the Spacebar on
your keyboard to stop playback.
| | 01:44 | There is a preference in After Effects
in your Preferences where you can change
| | 01:48 | the length of the audio
preview if you need a longer one.
| | 01:52 | Now this time, I want to press the period
key since we have some familiarity with
| | 01:57 | the music, we can start adding some
markers in real-time using the asterisk key.
| | 02:02 | Now don't panic if it
doesn't happen the first time.
| | 02:05 | Just let the playhead roll
back and add more markers.
| | 02:08 | As long as layer 8 is selected,
your markers will appear on layer 8.
| | 02:12 | All right, let's get going.
| | 02:14 | (music playing)
| | 02:26 | And then press the
Spacebar when you're finished.
| | 02:28 | Now whether or not I have rhythm
remains to be seen, but let's count the
| | 02:32 | number of markers.
| | 02:33 | We have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
| | 02:37 | Now that worked out beautifully, but
let's open up layer 8 and open up the Audio
| | 02:41 | options and open up the waveform.
| | 02:44 | See, this way, we can scrub through the
timeline and actually look to see if our
| | 02:48 | markers are lining up to the beat.
| | 02:51 | See, the waveform, the larger the
area here, the louder the music is.
| | 02:56 | So typically, when you're trying to
nail something on the beat, you'll want to
| | 03:00 | go with the marker that's
closer to the larger point.
| | 03:04 | Now I'm noticing with these two markers
I was probably trying to hit the same beat.
| | 03:08 | So I'm going to slide this left marker
just by clicking right on the edge and
| | 03:12 | dragging it over to the edge
right here to just this area.
| | 03:17 | Now as you're clicking and dragging
with your current-time indicator, if you
| | 03:21 | hold the Shift key, it will
snap to the different markers.
| | 03:25 | So that way you can use the red line
to actually make sure that you lined
| | 03:29 | up with the beat.
| | 03:30 | So there we go and then here.
| | 03:34 | Okay, perfect!
| | 03:35 | Now let's press the period key one
more time and you'll notice the current
| | 03:39 | time indicator scrubbing through and
we can just watch visually to see if
| | 03:43 | things lined up.
| | 03:44 | (Music Playing)
| | 03:50 | So I'm going to stop playback and just
move this one ahead a little bit so these
| | 03:55 | appear right after each other.
| | 03:57 | Now there's one last thing with
markers in terms of timing to audio.
| | 04:02 | If you double-click on the marker
you can actually open up labels.
| | 04:06 | So here I can type a message or any
kind of comment or anything like that.
| | 04:11 | There is obviously all kinds of
information you can add to markers.
| | 04:15 | You can even add duration.
| | 04:17 | But I just want to type 1st so I know
this is the first element that's going to
| | 04:21 | appear in the scene.
| | 04:22 | When I click OK, now you can
see that appear in the timeline.
| | 04:26 | So obviously it pays to have a short
label if you have a bunch of markers that
| | 04:29 | are right next to each other.
| | 04:31 | So once you have your markers in your
scene, you're actually ready to start
| | 04:35 | timing animation to the markers, and
we're going to jump into that in the
| | 04:40 | next video.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Trimming and sliding edits| 00:00 | Now in this video, we're going to time
the appearance of our graphics to the
| | 00:04 | beat of some audio, and if you look at
Layer 8 you can see we've already added
| | 00:09 | some markers to the audio.
| | 00:12 | We did that in the previous video.
| | 00:13 | Now to start trimming and sliding our
layers, let's look at how many elements we
| | 00:18 | have that we need to animate.
| | 00:19 | So we have six and a background layer.
| | 00:24 | So we have six markers here.
| | 00:27 | So let's go ahead and just move to
start of all these layers to the start of
| | 00:31 | the different markers.
| | 00:32 | In order to do that, I'm going to click and
drag in this number area of my timeline.
| | 00:38 | As I drag, my current-time indicator is
going to move, and then if I hold shift
| | 00:43 | it will snap to each one of these markers.
| | 00:46 | So let's start at the first marker.
| | 00:48 | We're going to select one through six.
| | 00:51 | This is our Background layer so we
don't need to change the animation for that.
| | 00:54 | All right, to slide layers back in the timeline,
you want to use the bracket key.
| | 00:59 | So if you look at the P key on your
keyboard, the key just to the right of that
| | 01:03 | is the left bracket key.
| | 01:05 | So think of that just like a frame. It's holding
in the left side of that layer.
| | 01:09 | So when you press it, notice now the
left side of the layer has moved to that
| | 01:14 | specific current-time indicator.
| | 01:16 | All right, now we'll click and drag
and hold down Shift, so our current time
| | 01:21 | indicator snaps to the start of the next layer.
| | 01:24 | This time we will hold down Command
on the Mac or Ctrl on the PC and just
| | 01:29 | deselect Layer 1, and we can left the bracket again
to trim the start point of Layer 2.
| | 01:35 | And let's just repeat the series of
commands as we move down the timeline.
| | 01:41 | I'm holding Shift as I drag.
| | 01:42 | I'm holding Command, or Ctrl on the PC, as
I deselect a layer and then I'm just
| | 01:47 | pressing left bracket to trim the
start point of the following layer.
| | 01:51 | We'll just keep repeating this really
quickly, and then I will jump back in
| | 01:56 | with some more thoughts.
| | 02:03 | Okay now if we press the Home key we
can move our current-time indicator to the
| | 02:07 | start of our comp and press zero
to load up our RAM preview.
| | 02:12 | (Video Playing)
| | 02:24 | Okay so as you can see, it gets
really busy as the different elements are
| | 02:27 | popping into the scene.
| | 02:29 | So what we need to focus on now is
actually re-timing some of the elements by
| | 02:33 | sliding them in the timeline, and then
trimming the out points of the layers
| | 02:38 | so these elements don't all
pile on top of each other.
| | 02:41 | So to get started, let's look at
the beginning of our animation which
| | 02:45 | is terribly empty.
| | 02:47 | So we can start with this 3D Text layer.
| | 02:50 | Just select Layer 2 and press the Left
bracket key to slide it to the front.
| | 02:55 | Now to preview, rather than using RAM,
I'm just going to click and drag with my
| | 02:59 | current-time indicator.
| | 03:01 | This works well because the word
wind pops-up and then energy pops in
| | 03:05 | right after that.
| | 03:06 | So that's great.
| | 03:07 | Now when wind animates away,
I want energy to disappear.
| | 03:13 | So I'm going to move my current time
indicator just a little bit past the end
| | 03:17 | of our 3D layer here.
| | 03:19 | Select Layer 1 and press Option+Right Bracket.
| | 03:23 | When you hold down the Option key, that
tells After Effects that you're going to
| | 03:27 | trim that layer rather than slide that layer.
| | 03:30 | So it's Option on the Mac, Alt on Windows.
| | 03:34 | Now if we move down the timeline,
notice we have our logo pop in.
| | 03:38 | Well that's kind of cool but
I want the logo to reveal last.
| | 03:42 | So let's move down the timeline, and
let's have our logo actually appear
| | 03:47 | somewhere around 3:20.
| | 03:49 | I don't want it to be right here at the
end just because that's just before the
| | 03:53 | end of our animation.
| | 03:55 | Now we can select Layer 3 and just
press the left bracket and we've slid
| | 03:59 | that layer down.
| | 04:00 | Let's go to about three seconds.
| | 04:03 | I'm choosing that number because when
I select Layer 4, I want my out point
| | 04:08 | to be there.
| | 04:09 | So let's select Layer 4 and just press
Option+Right Bracket to trim the out point.
| | 04:15 | Now I want this next layer
to pop in shortly thereafter.
| | 04:19 | So I'm going to left bracket
to slide that layer forwards.
| | 04:24 | And then when we get to this next marker,
I want this Green layer to disappear.
| | 04:29 | So as I dragged in the timeline I held
Shift, so my current-time indicator would
| | 04:34 | snap to the marker, and now we can
press Option+Right Bracket to trim.
| | 04:39 | Okay now there's one last layer we
need to have up here, and it's Layer 6.
| | 04:43 | So let's select Layer 6 and press
the left bracket to slide it and you
| | 04:48 | guessed it, we'll move down the
timeline and Option+Right Bracket to trim
| | 04:52 | it's out point.
| | 04:54 | Now if we press the Home key, we
can go ahead and press zero and preview
| | 04:58 | our animation.
| | 04:59 | (Video Playing)
| | 05:10 | So as you can see, we have definitely
created more interest in our animation
| | 05:14 | just by trimming and sliding the layers.
| | 05:17 | Now If I were going to keep
continuing to push this animation, I'd focus on
| | 05:21 | adding some effects to that background
layer so we can pop or text off of the
| | 05:26 | background and we'll focus on
doing some of that in the next chapter.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Swapping images| 00:00 | Now often times I'll find myself in
this situation where I'll need to start
| | 00:04 | building an animation but I don't have the
final elements to actually start the animation.
| | 00:11 | So that may seem like a big issue, but
honestly as long as you have a general
| | 00:15 | idea as to the size of the elements you
are going to be working with, you can go
| | 00:19 | ahead and start animating with the
elements that you currently have.
| | 00:24 | So to give you an example, let's look at
a RAM Preview of our project right now.
| | 00:29 | I'm just going to go over my Preview
panel, and load this up in the RAM Preview.
| | 00:34 | Now as you can see, I have this kind
of funky animation built with the shapes
| | 00:38 | that sort of fly through the scene.
| | 00:41 | Now I wasn't sure whether these would
be the final shapes or not but I went
| | 00:44 | ahead and started building the animation.
| | 00:47 | Now I'm going to stop
playback here for a second.
| | 00:49 | Just in case, I have to come back and
actually use this version, I'm going to
| | 00:55 | create a different version while
still keeping this original version built.
| | 01:01 | So in order to do that, I'm going to
select my Multi_Moves composition, and go
| | 01:07 | up under Edit and choose Duplicate.
| | 01:10 | Now Multi_Moves 2 will give me
my duplicate that we can alter.
| | 01:15 | So let's double-click on Multi_
Moves 2 and look at what we have.
| | 01:21 | Well we have a pre-composition named Move.
| | 01:24 | So if I double-click that comp you notice,
well, I only have one version of Move.
| | 01:29 | So I need to create a duplicate
version of Move, if I'm going to change
| | 01:33 | the other composition.
| | 01:35 | So let's select Move and go up
under Edit and choose Duplicate.
| | 01:40 | Now if you double-click Shape2 in the
Project panel, look in the layer viewer
| | 01:45 | and you can see we have this circular shape.
| | 01:47 | Now the new shape we're going to
replace this with is going to be a square.
| | 01:52 | So let's import that into our project.
| | 01:54 | Double-click on the Project panel, and
navigate in your Exercise folder to your
| | 02:00 | Footage folder, and in there under
Illustrator we want to choose Shape3.
| | 02:05 | Now we can set this to Import As
Footage making sure not to select
| | 02:10 | this Sequence option.
| | 02:11 | Okay now when we click Open, we have Shape3.
| | 02:15 | If you double-click to view it,
you can see now this is the square.
| | 02:19 | So let's double-click and open Move 2.
| | 02:22 | Now within Move 2, select every
single layer that's labeled Shape 2.
| | 02:27 | So I'm going to click Layer 1 and
hold Shift and click on Layer 4 so
| | 02:32 | they're all selected.
| | 02:33 | To change the shape out, you need to
hold the Option key on a Mac or Alt on
| | 02:38 | Windows and then choose the
other shape that you want to use.
| | 02:42 | So I'm going to choose shape 3 and
while I'm holding Option, I'm going to drag
| | 02:47 | it down to the timeline.
| | 02:48 | When we let go with our mouse, notice
Shape 3 is now in place and since it was
| | 02:53 | roughly the same size with Shape 2, if
we scrub through the timeline here you
| | 02:58 | can notice I'm getting the
exact same animation. That's great!
| | 03:02 | Now if we open up Multi_Moves 2, you
can see I haven't changed out that element
| | 03:09 | in this version yet.
| | 03:10 | We need to actually swap
out the Move composition.
| | 03:13 | So select Layer 2, hold
down Shift and select Layer 4.
| | 03:17 | Now layers 2, 3 and 4 are selected and
we can hold down Option on the Mac, Alt
| | 03:23 | on the PC, and select the Move 2 comp
and drag it down into the timeline.
| | 03:29 | When I let go, now notice that new
composition has been updated in this version.
| | 03:35 | So if we scrub through our timeline here,
you can see we have our new animation
| | 03:40 | with all the keyframes and the new
shape and we still manage to keep the
| | 03:45 | original animation with the Multi_Moves comp.
| | 03:48 | Let's double-click that and scrub
through, and you can see now we have two
| | 03:53 | versions of the same animation with
two different graphics by using Option+Drag
| | 03:58 | to swap the images.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
5. Using Effects to Modify LayersLayering multiple effects| 00:00 | Unfortunately a lot of new young
designers make the mistake of getting really
| | 00:05 | excited about effects.
| | 00:06 | And start to think yeah, the more
effects I put on my project, the better
| | 00:09 | it's going to look.
| | 00:11 | And I have to tell you
honestly, sometimes less is more.
| | 00:15 | But what's even better than that is
really understanding what you're doing when
| | 00:19 | you're applying effects.
| | 00:20 | In essence, you're solving
problems for the graphics that you have.
| | 00:25 | So currently, I've got this kind of
interesting graphic here, with these three
| | 00:29 | shapes in the middle and this cool
footage of solar panels in the background.
| | 00:34 | But the problem is the fact
that they're fighting so much.
| | 00:37 | I need them to blend together and
not literally fight for my attention.
| | 00:43 | So we're going to use effects to
blend them together and separate them.
| | 00:49 | So let's get started by
treating the background footage.
| | 00:54 | Select the background footage,
| | 00:55 | and I want to show you two things we need
to be aware of for this specific project.
| | 01:00 | If we click and drag with our current
time indicator, you can see I've got major
| | 01:05 | exposure differences.
| | 01:07 | Right here at the end, I've got a nice
beautiful flare out with lens flares and
| | 01:11 | at the beginning its kind a dark.
| | 01:13 | That's really important to pay attention to.
| | 01:15 | The second thing you want to pay
attention to is just the speed in general.
| | 01:19 | So you might want to press zero on your
keyboard, and load up a RAM Preview to
| | 01:23 | see what this looks like.
| | 01:25 | Now always remember to look in the
upper right corner of your Info window to
| | 01:29 | make sure that you're
getting real time playback.
| | 01:32 | And if you're not just kind of
understand that when you're checking it out.
| | 01:37 | Okay so the motion of
that wasn't too, too fast.
| | 01:39 | So let's start by selecting our
background layer and going up to the
| | 01:44 | Effects pulldown menu.
| | 01:45 | In here, you'll notice we
have several groups of effects.
| | 01:50 | Adobe has gone through the process of
grouping everything, so they kind of make sense.
| | 01:56 | Sometimes when you're going through
these effects, you may get lost and not
| | 02:00 | remember exactly where each one is.
| | 02:03 | I'll show you where to search for that
later, but I just want you to understand
| | 02:07 | that they are grouped and
yes, you can search for them.
| | 02:11 | One of the filters I like to use
first, when I'm trying to get colorful
| | 02:15 | graphics to blend with something
that's not working, I like to go to Color
| | 02:19 | Correction and use the CC Toner.
| | 02:23 | If we select that, notice in the
Effects control panel on the left side of your
| | 02:27 | interface, it has a
couple of different controls.
| | 02:31 | Right now, it's set to Tritone and
basically what its' doing is that it's
| | 02:35 | tinting the Highlights, the
Midtones and the Shadows of this image.
| | 02:40 | Obviously if you click on Tritone
you could make it Duotone or even five
| | 02:45 | tones or just one Solid.
| | 02:47 | Now let's just leave it Tritone.
| | 02:50 | And so this matches the
background a little more closely.
| | 02:54 | Let's change the midtone color.
| | 02:56 | I'm okay with white at the
top and black for the shadows.
| | 03:00 | So if we grab the Eyedropper next to
the Midtone color, we can go out into our
| | 03:05 | viewer and sample this blue shape in the middle.
| | 03:09 | Now I've got this kind
of cool tint to my scene.
| | 03:12 | This looks pretty decent here, but
let's see what it looks like when we go to
| | 03:16 | the overexposed area.
| | 03:18 | I think that's a little too much blue.
| | 03:20 | So I'm going to adjust this blend
with original setting in the toner.
| | 03:24 | If you click and drag up, what this is
doing, the higher the number the more of
| | 03:29 | the original footage is going to sneak through.
| | 03:31 | The lower number, the more of
the effect is going to take effect.
| | 03:36 | So let's send it around 43 and if we
drag back here you can see okay, yeah, it's
| | 03:41 | starting to blend in a little bit more here.
| | 03:45 | Now another thing you can do,
is deal with the sharp edges.
| | 03:48 | See how sharp the edges are of these shapes?
| | 03:51 | See how sharp the lines are of the background?
| | 03:54 | So I want to go to my Effects panel, and
actually see if there's a filter I can
| | 03:58 | use to soften the edges of the background video.
| | 04:02 | Sure enough, there's a Blur section and in
here, I want to use the Camera Lens Blur.
| | 04:08 | You could use the Fast Blur.
| | 04:10 | It's great, if your system is not so fast.
| | 04:14 | But since we're on a big blazing system
here, let's choose the Camera Lens Blur.
| | 04:19 | I just think this is a
little bit more realistic blur.
| | 04:22 | In here, you can make adjustments to
make your footage look like it was shot
| | 04:27 | with a real camera, and a real lens.
| | 04:30 | And obviously, it was shot with the real camera.
| | 04:32 | But you can accentuate how that
looks by going through some of the
| | 04:36 | different properties.
| | 04:38 | I'll leave the Iris Properties set to
Hexagon but just to show you, you can
| | 04:43 | setup all different kinds of Camera Lens Blur.
| | 04:47 | Just so this is little softer.
| | 04:49 | I'm going to increase the Blur
Radius by clicking and dragging out.
| | 04:53 | Let's drag it to around 18.
| | 04:57 | That's significantly softer, but I
still want to stylize this a little bit more
| | 05:02 | because in my opinion,
these edges are a little flat.
| | 05:07 | So a lot of times, when I'm trying to
deal with flatness in an image, I like to
| | 05:12 | go back up under my Effects and apply a glow.
| | 05:16 | A glow creates a distinct style.
| | 05:19 | So I know that it's
actually in the Stylize panel.
| | 05:23 | Now if I didn't know that, I could go
over to my Effects & Presets and type
| | 05:28 | Glow, and sure enough under Stylize there's Glow.
| | 05:33 | So to apply this let's just drag and
drop it to my background video layer and
| | 05:38 | notice it pops-up in my Effects Control panel.
| | 05:41 | Now you can see some of the
highlights starting to pop out in the background
| | 05:44 | video, but it's really not quite
exactly what I was looking for.
| | 05:49 | So let's look at some of the Glow options.
| | 05:51 | You should look at your
Options from the top down.
| | 05:54 | So the Glow right now is based on
the Color Channels, which is perfect.
| | 05:58 | But we want to adjust the Threshold,
which is how sensitive it is to differences
| | 06:04 | in the video footage.
| | 06:05 | Now notice when I drag that down to the
left, I'm getting a really cool kind of
| | 06:10 | light beam effect happening through my edges.
| | 06:14 | We could adjust the Radius of this glow
to kind of soften it up a bit, which I
| | 06:19 | think would be kind of smart.
| | 06:20 | So let's increase that to 19.
| | 06:22 | And the intensity just makes it
that much brighter in the hot areas.
| | 06:26 | So if we increase that to 27, you
can see it's really bright here.
| | 06:31 | I'm going to undo that last change
just by pressing Command+Z. The reason
| | 06:37 | being, remember we have this
light area at the end of my timeline.
| | 06:41 | So let's move the current time
indicator down there and you can see that's
| | 06:45 | really, really bright.
| | 06:47 | So what we need to do is adjust this
glow over the length of the composition.
| | 06:54 | In order to do that, we can set
two keyframes really, really quickly.
| | 06:59 | Since the effects are already up in the
Effects Control panel, let's just move
| | 07:02 | our current-time indicator all the way
to the end of the project and bring the
| | 07:06 | Glow Threshold up a bit.
| | 07:09 | Notice how now it's not glowing out so much.
| | 07:12 | We could also bring the Radius down a
little bit, maybe not so much, maybe I
| | 07:18 | will bring it down to 4, and the
Intensity, let's take that down to zero.
| | 07:23 | Now it just looks like a bright blurry scene.
| | 07:26 | Unfortunately, I haven't added my keyframes yet.
| | 07:30 | So we need to just keyframe the
Threshold, keyframe the Radius and keyframe
| | 07:36 | the Intensity.
| | 07:38 | Now if we move our current time
indicator to the beginning of the project we
| | 07:43 | can bring our Threshold back down,
bring the Radius back up and bring the
| | 07:49 | Intensity back up to one.
| | 07:51 | Okay so now if we scrub through our
project, you can see it's not getting
| | 07:55 | completely blown out as it moves to the end.
| | 07:58 | But there's one last thing I need to show you.
| | 08:01 | Move your current-time indicator to around 5:15.
| | 08:06 | Now in here, I want you to pay
attention to the background because the layer
| | 08:11 | order is very specific.
| | 08:13 | If we collapse our Glow and collapse
our Camera Lens Blur and collapse the
| | 08:18 | CC Toner, in our Effects Control panel, you
can see the order in which they're applied.
| | 08:24 | If we change this order, the image
is going to look completely different.
| | 08:30 | So let's move the Glow all the way
up to the top, and see what happens.
| | 08:35 | Notice how flat that is?
| | 08:37 | That's because the glow was being
applied first and then we did the toner and
| | 08:42 | then we just blurred out
something that's relatively flat.
| | 08:45 | So I just want you to understand when
you're applying effects the order in which
| | 08:50 | you applied the effects is really important.
| | 08:52 | So let's move our glow right back down
to the bottom and reevaluate our scene.
| | 08:58 | As you can see, we've definitely
stylized the background so it's not competing
| | 09:03 | as much with the foreground elements.
| | 09:05 | But as we move throughout the rest of
this chapter, you'll see some other ways
| | 09:09 | we can stylize things to
further integrate our graphics.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Generating graphic effects with adjustment layers| 00:00 | Generating graphics inside of After
Effects can be extraordinarily rewarding.
| | 00:04 | But you have to be careful
because sometimes time will fly.
| | 00:09 | I have a tendency to get lost inside
of how many different things I can do
| | 00:13 | inside of After Effects, especially if
I'm generating something from nothing.
| | 00:20 | To get started in this example, what
we're going to do is actually create an
| | 00:24 | effect where there's a beam of light
that attaches between these two shapes.
| | 00:30 | If you're joining me from the
previous video, I want to point out
| | 00:33 | something really quickly.
| | 00:34 | If we select our background layer here
and open our Effects Control panel, you
| | 00:42 | can see I've replaced the Camera Lens
Blur, or really now, I've turned off the
| | 00:47 | Camera Lens Blur and added a Fast Blur instead.
| | 00:50 | Let me just turn Fast Blur off and
Camera Lens Blur on, you can see Camera Lens
| | 00:55 | is beautiful, but it takes a
very long time to work with.
| | 00:59 | So this is a trick to speed up your workflow.
| | 01:02 | So just remember before you render,
disable Fast Blur, enable Lens Blur.
| | 01:07 | Okay let's jump back to our animation
here and select the Yellow and the Blue
| | 01:12 | shapes in the timeline.
| | 01:14 | Now I want both of these shapes to
start together right over top of each other.
| | 01:19 | So let's press the P key to open the
Position and a quick way to reset both of
| | 01:24 | them to the same position is to just
click in the X value for one of them and
| | 01:29 | then type in a number.
| | 01:31 | So let's choose something like 600,
and then press tab to move to the Y value
| | 01:37 | and notice, it automatically set the Y
value, but let's set this around 360.
| | 01:45 | Okay now these are overlapping.
| | 01:47 | You might be able to see little bit
of edge but that's just because of not
| | 01:52 | viewing it at exactly 100% full
resolution the whole nine. Okay.
| | 01:58 | But basically, they're on top of each other.
| | 02:01 | So let's zoom back out here and look at
how we're going to apply this beam effect.
| | 02:07 | Since I can't apply the effect to one or the
other, I need to use an Adjustment layer.
| | 02:14 | So we need to go up under Layer
and choose New > Adjustment Layer.
| | 02:18 | See Adjustment layers allow you to
apply effects to that layer and the effects
| | 02:23 | will be rendered on that layer over top
of any other layers that are below them.
| | 02:29 | So to generate the effect, we need to
go up to the Effect pulldown and go to
| | 02:34 | the Generate section.
| | 02:35 | In here, these are all different things that
you can generate from within After Effects.
| | 02:42 | The effect I want to use is the Beam effect.
| | 02:44 | Go ahead and choose Beam and
look in the Effects controls.
| | 02:48 | The reason I want to use Beam, it has a very
clear defined starting point and ending point.
| | 02:55 | See with both starting and ending point,
I can now apply an expression to the
| | 03:01 | starting point of one beam to
the Position data of another layer.
| | 03:07 | Now we can't see our graphics anymore,
and that's because this bottom option in
| | 03:11 | the Beam is set to Composite on Original.
| | 03:13 | So let's go ahead and select
that so we can see just our beam.
| | 03:19 | Now the length of this beam, notice, my
start point here and my end point here,
| | 03:24 | the beam is not all the way across.
| | 03:27 | So we need to adjust the length up to 100.
| | 03:31 | Now to apply an expression, let's
select our Adjustment layer in the timeline
| | 03:37 | and press E to open the effect.
| | 03:40 | Now expand the triangle for the beam,
and I'm going to use the Tilde key to
| | 03:46 | maximize the Layers panel
while I apply this expression.
| | 03:51 | The Tilde key is in the upper left part
of your keyboard under the Escape button.
| | 03:56 | So let's select the Starting Point and go up
under Animation, and choose Add Expression.
| | 04:03 | Now we have a pick whip.
| | 04:04 | So let's click on the pick whip, and hold
your mouse down as you drag down to the
| | 04:09 | position data of the Yellow layer.
| | 04:12 | Now select the End Point, go up under
Animation, choose Add Expression, and
| | 04:18 | do the same with the pick whip up, but
point it to the Position data of the blue layer.
| | 04:23 | Now in order to set the expression,
you just need to click anywhere outside of
| | 04:27 | this expression box.
| | 04:29 | Now to see the results, let's press the
Tilde key again to reset our menu and
| | 04:34 | you notice, we have red values for
our starting and end points and that's
| | 04:40 | letting us know that there
is an expression applied.
| | 04:43 | And if we scrub our current time
indicator down the timeline, you notice
| | 04:47 | nothing is happening.
| | 04:48 | Well that's because we haven't actually
animated these two shapes, they're just
| | 04:53 | sitting right on top of each other.
| | 04:54 | Now to quickly animate anything in
After Effects, use the Automatic Keyframing
| | 04:59 | button right here in the
top center of your timeline.
| | 05:02 | With that enabled, here let's collapse
the Adjustment layer, so we can select
| | 05:08 | the Yellow layer here.
| | 05:09 | With Automatic Keyframing enabled, I
can select the Yellow layer, and move it
| | 05:14 | anywhere in the timeline, and as I move
my current-time indicator around, notice
| | 05:20 | I can actually set a
keyframe just by moving that shape.
| | 05:25 | Now let's move the blue
shape in a similar fashion.
| | 05:31 | We'll have it start there and then move
our playhead and we can move it out, okay
| | 05:36 | and then we'll move down here and bring that up.
| | 05:41 | All right, now just so you can
see that this will record anything,
| | 05:46 | let's go up to the Tool panel and select
the Rotation tool and just click on the
| | 05:52 | Blue layer and spin it around.
| | 05:55 | Now I only have one keyframe on there,
so let's move our current-time indicator
| | 05:59 | back up towards the top and
spin this back around again.
| | 06:03 | All right, now as much fun as Automatic
Keyframing is, let's disable that for
| | 06:10 | now so we don't forget that
we're actually adding keyframes.
| | 06:15 | So let's load up a RAM Preview,
and check out what we have.
| | 06:23 | Now I don't know about you, but I
think that's kind of cool, especially with
| | 06:26 | the rotation, it looks like the yellow
shape is actually kind of pulling the blue
| | 06:32 | shape into a spin, sort of like a yo-yo.
| | 06:36 | Now I'm going to do one thing to tweak this.
| | 06:38 | Let's stop playback here for a second.
| | 06:41 | Notice the beam is on top of the shapes.
| | 06:43 | Well one of the beautiful things about
using Adjustment layers, you can always
| | 06:47 | move the effect below any other layers.
| | 06:50 | Now magically the beam is below the shape.
| | 06:55 | Now just because I kind of want to
blend these in a little bit more, I want to
| | 06:59 | select both the Yellow and Blue layers
and press T on my keyboard to open up the
| | 07:04 | Opacity, and bring that
Opacity down just a little bit.
| | 07:08 | If you really want to blend things
together, you could add another Adjustment
| | 07:11 | layer and add a Glow on the top and add
that on top of all your layers and you
| | 07:16 | could really kind of go crazy.
| | 07:18 | But I think you can see how quickly
and easily you can generate graphics from
| | 07:22 | within After Effects, and sure
enough, you might even lose some time.
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| Building backgrounds with effects| 00:00 | Now I can remember as a new designer,
the pressure I put on myself whenever I
| | 00:04 | looked at a blank canvas.
| | 00:07 | It was a little frustrating
and daunting to say the least.
| | 00:10 | But to be honest, the process of
generating a background doesn't need to
| | 00:15 | be daunting at all because there are some
amazing generators inside of After Effects.
| | 00:20 | Specifically, in this video, we'll
be creating a gradient background.
| | 00:25 | We'll also be creating an animated
organic kind of background and then we'll
| | 00:29 | explore how we can browse through some
of the preset, prebuilt backgrounds in
| | 00:35 | the animation presets within After Effects.
| | 00:38 | To get started, you can see, we
have a background composition.
| | 00:42 | Now most of the time when you're
generating different elements within the After
| | 00:46 | Effects, you'll need to go up
under Layer and create a new Solid.
| | 00:50 | If you ever go up to the Layer menu
and its grayed out, just make sure you have
| | 00:54 | the comp window or your timeline highlighted.
| | 00:58 | Now when we go up under
Layer you can choose New > Solid.
| | 01:02 | Now let's make sure that our Solid is
the comp size by clicking the button and
| | 01:06 | we can leave it white.
| | 01:07 | It really doesn't matter because when
we click OK, we are going to go right
| | 01:12 | back up under the Effects panel and
override anything that we're seeing with the layer.
| | 01:17 | So let's go to Effects, and choose Generate,
and it's not called Gradient, it's called Ramp.
| | 01:24 | We're going to generate a ramp.
| | 01:25 | We're going to ramp from one color to another.
| | 01:28 | The controls for this are pretty
straightforward, as you can see in the Effects
| | 01:32 | control panel in the upper left corner,
we have a Start of Ramp which is one
| | 01:36 | color and the End of Ramp which is another.
| | 01:39 | Now these targets mean that I can
click on the target, and then reposition
| | 01:44 | where the start point or end
point of each ramp is going to occur.
| | 01:48 | So when I click on the Start of
Ramp, let's click in the upper left hand
| | 01:53 | corner and notice now it's going to
start in the upper left corner, and if we
| | 01:57 | click on the End of Ramp we can
put it in the lower right corner.
| | 02:00 | And now you can see we've got a ramp
that goes from one side to the other.
| | 02:04 | One of the more common gradients you
want to create is not a linear gradient but
| | 02:09 | in fact a Radial Ramp.
| | 02:11 | So click on the Linear Ramp
pulldown, and change it to Radial.
| | 02:16 | Now just move the start target
right here to the middle of your comp.
| | 02:22 | And now the end target, let's actually
scroll out in our scene and move the end
| | 02:27 | target way off to the side.
| | 02:30 | Okay now we can scroll in and as I
scroll in to zoom out my magnification, I
| | 02:34 | can make sure to line up my start
point here with the center point.
| | 02:38 | Okay now if we zoom back out,
| | 02:41 | again, I'm just zooming using the scroll wheel,
| | 02:43 | we can adjust the colors of a ramp.
| | 02:46 | So instead of it being black in the
center let's actually give it a color tint.
| | 02:50 | So we'll choose this kind of light purply blue.
| | 02:54 | Okay, and then the end color, let's
choose something a little darker. Okay, cool.
| | 03:00 | Now when we zoom in, you can see we've
got something that has a little bit more
| | 03:04 | depth and there's a lot more
interesting than just the solid color to start
| | 03:08 | building your graphics.
| | 03:09 | Okay, let's close the ramp and disable
that effect for now, because we're going
| | 03:15 | to move on to create
something that's organic and moving.
| | 03:19 | So with the White Solid layer selected
in your timeline, go up to Effect, choose
| | 03:24 | Generate > Cell Pattern.
| | 03:27 | Cell Pattern is kind of interesting,
if you scrub in the timeline, nothing is
| | 03:32 | really happening, but if you click on
the stop watch next to Evolution we can
| | 03:37 | create our first keyframe.
| | 03:39 | Now let's press End on our keyboard to
move our current-time indicator to the
| | 03:43 | end and change this first
parameter for Evolution to 1.
| | 03:49 | Now if we press 0 to load up a RAM Preview,
| | 03:52 | here I'm going to press the
Spacebar so it just starts playing,
| | 03:55 | notice we have an animated background.
| | 03:58 | This is pretty cool, but if we stop
playback here for a second, we can
| | 04:02 | definitely change this up a little bit and
come up with something a little more creative.
| | 04:07 | So to change this up, let's change our
Solid settings, so select Layer 1 and
| | 04:12 | press Shift+Command+Y,
to open up our Solid Settings.
| | 04:17 | In here, let's change the Width from 1280 to 20.
| | 04:21 | I know it's going to be
really narrow but let's click OK.
| | 04:24 | Now what we're going to do is create
a neat effect by distorting this layer
| | 04:29 | Solid, so press S to open the scale,
and unlink the Scale parameters.
| | 04:35 | Now when we click and drag on the X axis,
notice we can slide this way, way out.
| | 04:40 | Here let's just type 5000 in that number field.
| | 04:44 | You can see we've got kind of
an interesting effect going on.
| | 04:48 | If we scrub through now, you
notice we have kind of blurring lines.
| | 04:52 | This is a great way to
create an organic background.
| | 04:56 | If you want to shift it up even a
little more, you could go up to the Cell
| | 05:00 | Pattern pulldown and change it
from Bubbles to something like Crystals.
| | 05:04 | Then you get much more
hard edges to your transforms.
| | 05:09 | Before we jump in to looking at presets,
I just want to encourage you to go back
| | 05:14 | to each one of these options because
there are all kinds of different parameters
| | 05:18 | that you can play with and change to
come up with something that's all your own.
| | 05:23 | Now let's go up to Layer
and just create a New > Solid.
| | 05:27 | And click to Make Comp Size button to make
sure it's the entire comp size and click OK.
| | 05:33 | With our new layer Solid selected, let's go
up under Animation > Browse Presets.
| | 05:40 | It may take a second to load because
Adobe Bridge is launching, but when Bridge
| | 05:44 | opens up, you have a bunch of presets
that you could apply for anything from
| | 05:49 | text to sound effects.
| | 05:51 | But specifically, since we're
creating backgrounds, we should go to the
| | 05:54 | Backgrounds folder.
| | 05:55 | So double-click Backgrounds and
notice there are all different kinds.
| | 06:00 | If we click on Circuit Effects, wait
for a second, and look in the upper right
| | 06:04 | corner at the Preview panel.
| | 06:06 | Once it loads, you'll be able to see
that we could create a really neat effect
| | 06:11 | just by using a preset.
| | 06:13 | So to apply the preset, all
you have to do is double-click.
| | 06:17 | Now since I double-clicked directly
on that preset's icon, it's automatically
| | 06:21 | applied that preset to our composition.
| | 06:25 | As I start scrolling in the timeline, you
can see this preset is even already animated.
| | 06:30 | And I know this because I can
see the stopwatch is set in the
| | 06:34 | Evolution parameter.
| | 06:36 | This has been a quick whirlwind tour
of creating backgrounds using different
| | 06:40 | effects and presets.
| | 06:42 | Once again, I encourage you to go back
and make some adjustments, so you can
| | 06:46 | create some backgrounds that are all your own.
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| Creating animated strokes | 00:00 | Using the Stroke effect is probably
going to be very important to your workflow,
| | 00:04 | especially if you're creating info graphics.
| | 00:08 | Now the term stroke is just a fancy
word for draw a line, and basically, it's
| | 00:13 | just drawing a line along a path.
| | 00:15 | To create some lines that will denote
the growth of solar panel usage across the
| | 00:21 | country, we need to start
with creating a layer Solid.
| | 00:25 | So let's make sure we have our
timeline selected and then go up under Layer,
| | 00:29 | and choose New > Solid.
| | 00:32 | We can leave it a White Solid.
| | 00:33 | All we have to do is click the
Make Comp Size button and click OK.
| | 00:38 | If I try, and add a stroke in here or
a path, I won't be able to see anything
| | 00:42 | because my layer is all the way
on the top of the layer hierarchy.
| | 00:47 | That's not a problem.
| | 00:48 | We can just adjust the opacity.
| | 00:50 | So press T to open the Opacity
and adjust it down to about 30%.
| | 00:56 | Perfect!
| | 00:57 | Now let's go up and grab the
Pen tool from our Tool panel.
| | 01:00 | Now to add a path into our mask, all
we have to do is just click once, and
| | 01:06 | then click and drag to create a curve, and
then just click again to add our third point.
| | 01:12 | When we're finished, we can just grab our
Selection tool and now we've created a mask.
| | 01:18 | To add the effect, we need to go up under
Effect and choose Generate > Stroke.
| | 01:26 | Now you know Stroke has been
added because you can see it in your
| | 01:29 | Effects Control panel.
| | 01:31 | To preview how the Stroke looks, the first
thing I usually adjust is the Paint Style.
| | 01:36 | Notice right now, it's set on original image.
| | 01:39 | So let's change it to On Transparent.
| | 01:42 | The stroke is kind of hard to see
because it's directly underneath of our path.
| | 01:46 | So if you press Shift+
Command+H, you can hide the path.
| | 01:51 | Obviously, the stroke is still
transparent, so let's just crank up our Opacity
| | 01:55 | on layer 1 by clicking on the 30%
value, and dragging it up to 100.
| | 02:01 | So let's look at some of the stroke options.
| | 02:03 | We could change the Brush Size just
by clicking and dragging, we could also
| | 02:07 | change the Brush Hardness.
| | 02:09 | If you want a more soft, feathery
looking brush, drag that back to the left.
| | 02:15 | Now we could adjust the opacity just
by clicking on the Opacity, but we could
| | 02:20 | also adjust the opacity
directly on the layer itself.
| | 02:24 | To animate this, what we need to do
is click and drag on the End parameter.
| | 02:28 | Notice, as I click and drag, I can scrub
through and see how the animation would be created.
| | 02:34 | So to create animation, of
course we just need to add a keyframe.
| | 02:39 | Just click the Stopwatch and
we've created a keyframe at frame 0.
| | 02:44 | Move the current-time indicator to 2
seconds just by clicking around 2 seconds.
| | 02:48 | Now you can see it's 2 seconds later.
| | 02:51 | Let's change the End parameter to 0.
| | 02:54 | Now if we scrub through our scene, you
could see it's going to start with the
| | 02:57 | line, and then go back the other way.
| | 03:00 | That's not exactly what we wanted, but
we could always just press U to open our
| | 03:06 | keyframes and we could select our
keyframes, right-click and reverse the
| | 03:11 | keyframes under the
Keyframe Assistant. All right!
| | 03:14 | Now the animation is set up properly.
| | 03:16 | Now what if you want more than one stroke?
| | 03:19 | Well this is a really nice
thing about the Stroke effect.
| | 03:22 | We could just grab our Pen
tool and add another stroke.
| | 03:25 | Let's just click down in our Solar
Panel area, click and drag to make sure it's
| | 03:30 | a nice curved path and then
click to add our third point.
| | 03:34 | Now again, we'll grab our
Selection tool to set that path.
| | 03:38 | Now it may take a second to refresh,
but if we drag our current-time indicator
| | 03:42 | back to the beginning of the timeline
and then scrub through, notice, oh wait!
| | 03:46 | No, we don't have a stroke.
| | 03:48 | That's because we need to come up to the
Path options here and select All Masks.
| | 03:54 | When we select All Masks, now
there's an option for Strokes Sequentially.
| | 03:59 | If it's not selected, make sure it's selected.
| | 04:01 | Now, when we scrub back through, notice
the Stroke effect will stroke the first
| | 04:06 | path and then the next path.
| | 04:08 | So obviously, if you have many, many
more lines, you could just keep adding them
| | 04:14 | to the same layer, and as long as
you're fine with it happen sequentially, you
| | 04:18 | could just select Stroke Sequentially.
| | 04:21 | The last thing that's kind of fun
about strokes, you can stroke any word.
| | 04:25 | You just have to start with a Text Layer.
| | 04:28 | Now I'm just going to move this
kinetEco layer right up here towards the top of
| | 04:31 | my composition, and with the Text
layer selected, we can go to the Layer menu
| | 04:36 | and go down to Create Masks from Text.
| | 04:40 | When we select that, notice the
visibility of the Text layer has been turned
| | 04:44 | off, but layer 1 is now a layer Solid,
and if you press M to open up a mask, you
| | 04:50 | can see there's a mask
for each individual letter.
| | 04:54 | To apply a stroke, just go up to the
Effect menu, and since we applied Stroke
| | 04:58 | before, that will be our first option.
| | 05:00 | The last effect you've always applied
will always pop up as the first option
| | 05:04 | in the Effects panel.
| | 05:05 | So let's choose Stroke, and instead
of just stroking one individual letter,
| | 05:10 | let's choose All Masks and make
sure Stroke Sequentially is selected.
| | 05:15 | Finally, we'll go to the Paint Style and
change it from On Original Image to On Transparent.
| | 05:21 | If we press Shift+Command+H, we can
hide our masks, and then all we have to do
| | 05:26 | is keyframe the End parameter to
actually animate the stroke of each individual
| | 05:32 | letter one right after the
other using the Stroke effect.
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|
|
6. Jumping into 3DIntroducing cameras| 00:00 | Working with 3D cameras in After Effects
will definitely add dimension to your projects.
| | 00:05 | You just need to be careful because
they can actually get rather confusing if
| | 00:09 | you're not ready for all their options.
| | 00:11 | Now of course, that's what we're going
to explore in this video, but before we
| | 00:15 | jump into cameras, it's always a wise
idea just to make sure that we understand
| | 00:19 | what renderer we're using.
| | 00:21 | So if you select the 3D composition,
go to your Composition > Comp Settings.
| | 00:26 | You want to look under the Advanced Tab and
make sure that your Renderer is Classic 3D.
| | 00:31 | So go ahead and click OK.
| | 00:34 | Now if we look at our project, you can
see we have two text layers and a layer
| | 00:38 | Solid, and none of these layers
currently live in the 3D world.
| | 00:43 | So in order to enable 3D, just enable
3D on their 3D switch in the timeline.
| | 00:50 | If you don't see the switch, make sure
that you click the button all the way on
| | 00:54 | the left-hand side and you
will see it disappear or reappear.
| | 00:58 | Now that 3D has been enabled for all of
these layers, we can go ahead and add a
| | 01:03 | camera to our scene.
| | 01:04 | If you go up under Layer, choose New > Camera.
| | 01:09 | Now with the camera,
let's look at these settings.
| | 01:12 | First thing, under Type;
| | 01:13 | One-Node Camera or Two-Node, this
depends on how the camera is going to animate.
| | 01:18 | There's an extra parameter in a Two-
Node Camera which we will explore in a
| | 01:21 | moment, but for now, let's
choose the One-Node Camera.
| | 01:25 | Now these presets pertain to DSLR
lenses, so I think you'll understand 15
| | 01:30 | millimeter is extraordinarily wide, 50
is kind of like what your eye would see,
| | 01:36 | and 200 is like a telephoto lens.
| | 01:39 | Now for this example, I want to choose a
relatively wide lens, so let's choose 24.
| | 01:44 | Zoom pertains to the actual zoom of the lens.
| | 01:47 | You can animate this
parameter to simulate a zoom lens.
| | 01:51 | Now the Angle of View will update
based on what you're making adjustments in
| | 01:56 | terms of your keyframes or
your presets with the zoom.
| | 02:00 | Enable Depth of Field is amazingly
powerful, it will allow After Effects to
| | 02:05 | simulate a shallow depth of field.
| | 02:07 | It is so powerful that we dedicated a whole
video to it a whole little later in this chapter.
| | 02:12 | So let's disable Depth of Field for now and
look at one last setting and that's Units here.
| | 02:20 | One of the things I like to do is
change my unit measurement to pixels because
| | 02:24 | in After Effects,
everything is centered around pixels.
| | 02:27 | So this kind of makes this
make a little bit more sense.
| | 02:32 | Now before we click OK, it's always
important to come up under the name, and
| | 02:36 | name your camera, so I'm
going to call this One Node 24.
| | 02:42 | So when we click OK, notice the camera
is now added to the scene, but up here,
| | 02:46 | we can't really see anything.
| | 02:48 | That's because we are currently in 1
view, looking at the active camera.
| | 02:53 | So let's change from 1 View
to 4 Views for a quick second.
| | 02:57 | This is how I usually work.
| | 02:59 | If you have a larger monitor,
you'll probably want to use 4 Views.
| | 03:02 | When you have multiple views, anytime
you click in each one of these views,
| | 03:07 | you'll get these yellow corners, that's
just letting you know exactly which view
| | 03:12 | is currently active because when you
have views active, you can actually switch
| | 03:17 | between the views within each
one of these little viewports.
| | 03:21 | Now I'm going to go back to my active
camera here, and for the sake of space,
| | 03:27 | let's go ahead and choose 2 Views for this.
| | 03:30 | Now I want to have the Active Camera, and
instead of the Top view, let's go to the Right view.
| | 03:37 | I know the scene isn't showing me very much.
| | 03:40 | If we zoom out by just using the scroll
wheel here, notice, okay I can see a box
| | 03:45 | over here, it's kind of small, but when
I click on it, here, I'm going to use my
| | 03:49 | Spacebar to move over, okay.
| | 03:51 | Here you can see my camera.
| | 03:53 | If I click off of that box, notice
the Camera layer is no longer selected.
| | 03:58 | Well as I move my camera around, I want
to be able to see what it's looking at.
| | 04:03 | So I want to enable this view to be on all
the time whether or not my layer is selected.
| | 04:08 | And to do that, with the Right view
selected, go up to this pulldown menu in the
| | 04:13 | upper-right corner of the viewer.
| | 04:15 | Under there, we can go to View Options,
and in the View Options, look at Camera
| | 04:20 | Wireframes, and click on
the pulldown and choose On.
| | 04:25 | This way, the Wireframe will
always be on for this specific view.
| | 04:29 | Anytime throughout the rest of this
project, when we switch back to the Right
| | 04:32 | view, it will remember this View Option.
| | 04:34 | Notice it didn't change this
View Option for this camera.
| | 04:38 | When you have a camera selected,
you can easily move around the scene.
| | 04:43 | Before I start moving around the scene
with one of my fun tools, let's look at
| | 04:48 | what One-Node Camera does extraordinarily well.
| | 04:51 | Select the One-Node Camera and
press P to open up the position.
| | 04:55 | If I click and drag on the Y parameter,
notice I can slide up and down, and
| | 05:02 | perfectly animate this while keeping
the camera perfectly perpendicular to the
| | 05:08 | logos that we're shooting.
| | 05:10 | I know this makes perfect sense to you.
| | 05:11 | You're probably thinking yeah,
this is absolutely no big deal.
| | 05:15 | Well look what happens
when we use a Two-Node Camera.
| | 05:18 | I'm going to go up under Layer and
choose New > Camera, and you guessed it,
| | 05:23 | we'll change the Type from One-Node to Two-
Node, and we'll call this 2 Node 24 and click OK.
| | 05:34 | Now notice with the Two-Node Camera,
if you press P to open up the position,
| | 05:38 | look at what happens
relative to a One-Node Camera.
| | 05:42 | See as I drag that up, see how it's
always pointing at this one specific area.
| | 05:47 | Even with a One-Node Camera, see if I
drag on a One-Node Camera, it's not rotating.
| | 05:53 | If you press A on the Two-Node Camera,
there is an option for Point of Interest
| | 06:00 | which is what this little thing is right here.
| | 06:01 | If you click on it in the Right
viewer, you can move it around.
| | 06:06 | Notice as I click and drag in my Info
window in the upper-right here, it's
| | 06:10 | letting me know that I am
moving my point of interest.
| | 06:13 | Now if we select the One-Node Camera
and press A, there is no point of interest,
| | 06:20 | and you can see all the options for the
cameras, obviously just by opening the
| | 06:23 | Transform Options, and here under the
Transform Options notice there's a Point
| | 06:28 | of Interest for my Two-Node Camera.
| | 06:30 | Here, let me expand that with the Tilde key.
| | 06:33 | So Two-Node, Point of Interest, One
-Node, no Point of Interest, okay.
| | 06:38 | Pressing the Tilde key to jump back to
my Normal Layer view and let's disable
| | 06:43 | the view for the One-Node Camera just
so we're dealing only with the Two-Node
| | 06:47 | Camera for right now.
| | 06:49 | We have the Two-Node Camera selected,
it's time to explore the Unified Camera
| | 06:54 | tool, and the way this works if you
have a three-button mouse, you can
| | 06:58 | automatically switch between all
three of these underlying tools.
| | 07:03 | So hover your mouse over the active
camera view, and click with your left-mouse
| | 07:08 | button and orbit around.
| | 07:11 | Notice, all I'm doing is just clicking and
dragging, and that's rotating my camera around.
| | 07:16 | If I click with my middle-
mouse button, this pans.
| | 07:21 | Notice I can pan up and down
very similar to the One-Node Camera.
| | 07:26 | So if you need to recreate that move with the
Two-Node Camera, I would use the Track XY tool.
| | 07:32 | Now if you right-click, I can zoom in
and out, and notice I can zoom in and
| | 07:38 | out rather quickly.
| | 07:40 | Now look what happens to these
controls on a One-Node Camera.
| | 07:45 | I can left-click and orbit,
but look at how it's orbiting.
| | 07:48 | It's orbiting as though I were
literally holding the camera in my hands.
| | 07:53 | So if that makes a little more
sense to you, by all means, you can
| | 07:57 | definitely do that.
| | 07:58 | But if you right-click, this still
functions in the same fashion, and the
| | 08:04 | middle-click definitely still functions
in the same fashion as the previous camera.
| | 08:09 | Now as I'm moving this around, I know
you're probably thinking to yourself,
| | 08:12 | okay, this is great, but
those layers are still flat.
| | 08:15 | Well if you select the layers just by
clicking and shift-clicking and press P,
| | 08:21 | let's offset all these layers in Z space.
| | 08:24 | So I'm clicking and dragging to the
left with the Eco layer, and the kinet
| | 08:28 | layer, let's drag it back to the right,
and notice it will actually disappear
| | 08:33 | behind the other layer.
| | 08:35 | It does truly exist in three-dimensional space.
| | 08:38 | Now if I grab my One-Node Camera and
middle-click and move up and down, you can
| | 08:44 | see there's a slight shift.
| | 08:45 | Now if you left-click, you can orbit
around, but it wouldn't be as obvious as
| | 08:50 | it would be with the Two-Node Camera.
| | 08:52 | So let's select the Two-Node Camera,
and left-click to orbit around, and here,
| | 08:57 | you can actually really see what's
going on, and that's just because with the
| | 09:01 | Two-Node Camera, again, it's
anchored around its point of interest.
| | 09:06 | The one last thing to understand about
3D cameras is the fact that you can have
| | 09:11 | two cameras within one scene, and the
way it work is just like a 2D layer.
| | 09:17 | There's a hierarchy.
| | 09:19 | So if I trim the start point of the
Two-Node Camera just by clicking and
| | 09:22 | dragging on the left side, now when I
move my current-time indicator, notice I
| | 09:28 | can switch from one camera
view to the next camera view.
| | 09:33 | So this is kind of an interesting way
to build your animations, because you can
| | 09:36 | actually animate multiple cameras,
and then trim the cameras within your
| | 09:41 | timeline, and use that as a fashion to
actually cut from one camera to the next.
| | 09:48 | So whether it's a One-Node Camera or a
Two-Node Camera, with the Unified Camera
| | 09:54 | tool and a firm grasp of how to
switch between multiple views, you can make
| | 09:59 | navigating in 3D space just that much easier.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Working with 3D layers| 00:00 | Now one of the things I hear most often
with people who are new to After Effects
| | 00:05 | is a general frustration with
manipulating the camera or even positioning
| | 00:10 | objects in 3D space, just basically
getting comfortable with 3D in general.
| | 00:15 | Well I'm here to tell you in
this video that it's not that bad.
| | 00:20 | All you have to really do is pay
attention to the orientation of your object
| | 00:24 | within the 3D environment and if you
have a basic knowledge of camera skills,
| | 00:30 | you should be pretty okay.
| | 00:32 | So let's look at our project here and I
can show you some of my tips and tricks.
| | 00:38 | Select the layer 4 Solid on the
background and you can see it's a background
| | 00:42 | layer, and we also have two text layers ,
and those of you joining me from the last
| | 00:47 | video, let me double-click on the camera.
| | 00:50 | I now have a 50 millimeter camera
and it's a Two-Node Camera, okay.
| | 00:55 | Now with these two words and this
background, I still have zippy dimension.
| | 01:01 | So let's go ahead and add some
dimension by selecting our background layer and
| | 01:06 | pressing R to open the Rotation.
| | 01:08 | Now there is a difference
between orientation and rotation.
| | 01:12 | I will show you that in a moment, but
for now let's change the X Rotation to 90.
| | 01:19 | Now we can't see our layer because it's
pointed directly at the camera and it is
| | 01:24 | a 2D layer, so we need to move the camera.
| | 01:27 | If you press C to grab your Camera tool
and middle-mouse click and drag down on
| | 01:32 | the canvas, we can now reposition our scene.
| | 01:36 | We are actually not repositioning the scene,
we were moving the camera in the scene.
| | 01:41 | If you left-mouse click, let's
rotate around so we can kind of get this
| | 01:46 | perspective and then middle-mouse click
again to sort of set or type up in the middle.
| | 01:51 | Press V when you're finished manipulating
your camera to grab your Selection tool.
| | 01:57 | Now rotation and orientation.
| | 02:00 | Let's press R to open up the
Rotation parameters for the word kinet.
| | 02:05 | Rotation, if I click and drag on the Y
rotation here, notice as I spin around, I
| | 02:12 | get this number that pops-up here.
| | 02:14 | The first number is the number of
rotations, the second number is just
| | 02:18 | the number of degrees.
| | 02:20 | So if I were to keyframe this here, let's
right-click on Rotation and just say Reset.
| | 02:25 | If I were to keyframe this, just set a
keyframe at frame zero and then move to
| | 02:30 | one second and crank around
until you get past one rotation.
| | 02:35 | And let's move to two seconds and just
press N. If we press zero this is going
| | 02:40 | to be really fast, but we'll get a RAM
Preview and I think you'll see that this
| | 02:45 | spins around one full rotation
and then stops 56 degrees past that.
| | 02:50 | Sure enough, that's what's going on.
| | 02:56 | If we click and drag on the Y
parameter for Orientation, notice once it gets
| | 03:02 | past 360 it just resets.
| | 03:06 | So if we delete the keyframes for the
Y Rotation and actually create a short
| | 03:10 | animation here for our
orientation, look what happens?
| | 03:13 | If we set our first keyframe, let's
say at seven here, and then move to one
| | 03:18 | second and crank up past 360, there
we go, it's cranked past 15 degrees and
| | 03:27 | press zero for RAM Preview, look at that.
| | 03:30 | Next to nothing, that's because the
Orientation will always take the shortest
| | 03:35 | route to that particular
orientation that you set the keyframe to.
| | 03:40 | It doesn't matter how many times you rotate
around because it doesn't keep track of that.
| | 03:44 | All right!
| | 03:46 | Now let's delete the Orientation and
right-click on that parameter and say Reset.
| | 03:52 | We can do the same thing for the Y
Rotation, just right-click on the words Y
| | 03:56 | Rotation and choose Reset.
| | 03:59 | Now if you're trying to reposition
more than one layer in 3D space like this
| | 04:03 | layer Eco, I want it to
move with the layer kinet.
| | 04:07 | If we select both of these layers and
press R, look what happens when I start
| | 04:12 | rotating on the Y. Of course, they are
going to rotate around their own axis.
| | 04:16 | So if we want them both to move in
unison, you guessed it, we have to make
| | 04:20 | Eco the child of kinet.
| | 04:23 | So I'll just collapse both layers,
make sure to deselect and then reselect
| | 04:28 | layer 2, and if you don't have the
Parent options open in your timeline,
| | 04:32 | just right-click anywhere in this gray area,
under the Columns and choose Parent, okay.
| | 04:38 | On layer two, click on the pick whip
for the Parent and drag it towards kinet.
| | 04:43 | When I let go, now it's the child
of kinet, and if we open the Rotation
| | 04:47 | parameters by pressing R and click and
drag on the Y you can see this is exactly
| | 04:52 | what I'm looking for.
| | 04:55 | Let's go ahead and rotate this around
quite a bit and we'll rotate it up and
| | 04:59 | give it a funky angle.
| | 05:02 | A lot of times, once you have
something strange like this in terms of how the
| | 05:08 | layer works, people get really
confused as to where they are in the scene.
| | 05:13 | They get confused how to move
the object through the scene.
| | 05:17 | For example, if I want both these
words to fly in from this lower right-hand
| | 05:21 | corner and go all the way across the scene.
| | 05:24 | If I clicked on this control handle
for the Z axis, notice that's not really
| | 05:29 | going to work, it's going
through the bottom of the layer.
| | 05:32 | That's because these handles
are oriented to the object.
| | 05:36 | See up here at the top of your
interface, we have Orientation, this is
| | 05:41 | object orientation.
| | 05:43 | If I click on this, that's world
orientation. So, check it out.
| | 05:47 | If I wanted to create an animation
where it slides in from the right and moves
| | 05:52 | all the way through the scene, I could do
that because it's now oriented to the world.
| | 05:59 | What if I wanted it to fly in here and
then fly directly towards me at the camera?
| | 06:05 | Well that's what this last
orientation is really good for.
| | 06:08 | This will orient directly to the camera.
| | 06:11 | So now with that Orientation set, if
I click and drag on the Z axis, I can
| | 06:16 | drag to the left and sure enough it's going to
flyout right towards me, right passed the camera.
| | 06:23 | As you can see, when it comes to
rotating and positioning and orienting
| | 06:28 | yourself in the 3D environment, it's
really not that bad as long as you pay
| | 06:32 | attention to the orientation and
you're relatively comfortable with some of
| | 06:35 | your camera controls.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Positioning layers| 00:00 | This tip I'm going to show you in
this video has save me countless hours in
| | 00:04 | terms of positioning and moving
multiple objects around in my scenes.
| | 00:09 | If you can master this, I think
you'll be very excited and a lot more
| | 00:13 | comfortable working in 3D within After Effects.
| | 00:17 | So to get started, we need to look at
the Wind composition, so double-click
| | 00:22 | the Wind comp and you can see I have a
propeller and a base and this is a wind turbine.
| | 00:28 | Now this is an Illustrator file, but
it's plenty big enough for what we need,
| | 00:32 | so I'm not going to worry about
collapsing Transform just yet.
| | 00:35 | Let's go ahead and close the Wind comp
and add it to a 3D comp, so drag it from
| | 00:41 | the Project panel just
below Layer 4, the layer Solid.
| | 00:46 | Now even though this appears as though
it's in 3D space, we all know it's only
| | 00:50 | in 2D, so enable 3D and there we go.
| | 00:54 | Now it's in 3D space, but we do have an issue.
| | 00:57 | If you click on the Y control axis
handle and move up in the scene, you can see
| | 01:02 | the anchor point of this layer
is kind of not in the right place.
| | 01:07 | When you're dealing with resetting
anchor points on objects in 3D space, I
| | 01:11 | recommend switching to in
orthogonal view, like Front.
| | 01:16 | Here, I'm just going to middle
mouse click there to move down.
| | 01:20 | Okay let's zoom in there, perfect.
| | 01:22 | When you're in an orthogonal view,
you're eliminating the need to deal with
| | 01:27 | three dimensions, because you
can only deal in two dimensions.
| | 01:32 | So in order to reposition the anchor
point here, I'm going to press A while
| | 01:35 | selecting layer 4 and click and
drag on the Y axis to bring the object up
| | 01:42 | to the anchor point.
| | 01:43 | And now we can click and drag on the X
axis and as you can see we've lined up
| | 01:48 | our anchor point and it looks pretty good.
| | 01:50 | Now I know this is good, again
because we're in the Front orthogonal view.
| | 01:54 | So let's switch back to the
Active Camera and zoom out.
| | 01:58 | I'm just going to press the
Spacebar and move down here.
| | 02:01 | And now if we just click and drag on
the axis control handle, we can move our
| | 02:06 | windmill down towards the bottom, okay.
| | 02:10 | As I'm looking at this, I'm noticing the
axis handles our pointed towards the camera.
| | 02:15 | So we need to go back up to the top of
our composition and make sure that this
| | 02:19 | is oriented to the object.
| | 02:22 | Now when I move I know the
object is not going to move anywhere.
| | 02:25 | Even though the base of this is rounded,
I am going to just move it down, so
| | 02:29 | it's kind of intersecting the canvas.
| | 02:32 | I think that looks relatively okay.
| | 02:35 | If we zoom back out, you can see, okay
that's pretty cool in terms of height,
| | 02:39 | but I do want to kind of scale it down.
| | 02:41 | So select layer 4 and press S, and
the reason I want to scale this down, I
| | 02:47 | just want to add several more and if I kept it
that large, it would just be way too dominant.
| | 02:53 | I want to add a field of these windmills
over into the left corner here, and the
| | 02:58 | way we'll do that is with
some pretty nifty key commands.
| | 03:02 | Just so the windmills kind of stick
out further than our type, making sure
| | 03:06 | that our axis handles are object oriented.
| | 03:09 | We can click on the Z axis
and move this up in our project.
| | 03:14 | Now to add a second windmill, just
press Command+D with layer 4 selected and we
| | 03:21 | can just click and drag on the red
axis handle to slide that one over.
| | 03:27 | Now this is where things get fun
because after we duplicate it and slid this
| | 03:32 | over, you want to go to the
Parent section of the windmill.
| | 03:36 | If you don't have Parent open in your
timeline, just right-click anywhere in the
| | 03:40 | gray area and enable Parent, okay.
| | 03:43 | We want to make layer
4 the child of layer 5.
| | 03:47 | So we have the original windmill and
our duplicate windmill is the Child.
| | 03:52 | Let's duplicate the Child by pressing
Command+D and instead of just clicking
| | 03:57 | with the pick whip, I want you to click
the pick whip and hold down Option and
| | 04:01 | then point the pick whip
for layer 4 at layer 5.
| | 04:05 | When we let go, look what happens.
| | 04:09 | Let's do that one more time, I'll press
Command+D with layer 4 selected, hold
| | 04:13 | down Option, grab the pick whip for
layer 4 and point it to layer 5.
| | 04:18 | Okay now we have four windmills.
| | 04:21 | I could continue doing this by
offsetting another one further back and
| | 04:26 | then repeating the command, but we
could really start compounding this
| | 04:30 | effect by pre-composing.
| | 04:32 | So select layer 4 and Shift+Click
to select through layer 7 and go up
| | 04:37 | under Layer and choose Pre-compose.
| | 04:39 | Pre-comp 1, I'll just called
this Row 1 Wind and click OK.
| | 04:46 | Now you notice it automatically
reset everything in 2D, so go ahead and
| | 04:51 | collapse transformations, so
the 3D data gets passed through.
| | 04:57 | Enable 3D for this layer as well
because I want to duplicate this, but still
| | 05:02 | move it in 3D space.
| | 05:03 | So with Row 1 Wind selected, press
Command+D and just move it back on the Z
| | 05:11 | axis by clicking on the Z
axis and moving backwards.
| | 05:15 | Now the first time you duplicate, all
you need to do is make the child, the
| | 05:19 | child of the original layer.
| | 05:21 | It's the second time that you want to
use the Option command, so duplicate layer
| | 05:26 | 4 and hold down Option, grab with
your pick whip and make it the child of
| | 05:31 | layer 5, and sure enough it will repeat.
| | 05:35 | Let's do this one more time, Command+D and
Option, make it the child. Okay, perfect.
| | 05:42 | Now we have a full nice field of
windmills and if we press C, let's left-click
| | 05:47 | and orbit around the scene and you can
see I've got quite a cool thing going on
| | 05:52 | here with these windmills.
| | 05:56 | I like how this is looking in 3D space,
but we need to keep things moving by
| | 06:02 | actually adding some semblance of
dimension and we can do that by exploring
| | 06:07 | material options and then
eventually adding some lights and shadows.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding lights and working with Material Options| 00:00 | Now when it comes to covering lights
and materials inside of After Effects, you
| | 00:04 | can't really have one without the other.
| | 00:07 | So we have a lot of ground to cover
and I want to give you a good broad
| | 00:11 | overview of how lights
and materials work together.
| | 00:14 | In the interests of time, I
have prebuilt our project.
| | 00:18 | Now understand later on, I'll show
you the inner workings of how to actually
| | 00:22 | add a light to the scene, but
for now broad brush strokes.
| | 00:27 | When you're dealing with lights, you
have to deal with the Material Options and
| | 00:30 | Material Options are controlled by the
renderer and of course the renderer is
| | 00:34 | set where? In the composition.
| | 00:37 | So I need to check this composition
to see what renderer we're working on.
| | 00:42 | So if you look in the timeline, I have
the 3D comp and in the upper left corner
| | 00:46 | of the Comp Viewer, I'm in the 3D comp.
| | 00:48 | So if you double-click the 3D comp,
you can see okay, that's what I
| | 00:52 | have opened, great.
| | 00:54 | But if you look in the upper right
corner of the Comp Viewer, the Renderer is
| | 00:58 | listed as Classic 3D.
| | 01:00 | Well that's excellent, but if you
don't see this bar, that's not so excellent.
| | 01:05 | So just to make sure you're seeing
this bar, let's go to the flyout menu in
| | 01:09 | the upper right corner of the Comp Viewer.
| | 01:11 | Now go down to the option here where
it says Show Composition Navigator.
| | 01:17 | If you deselect this, you
can no longer see that nav bar.
| | 01:21 | If we go back and reselect it,
this is letting us know this is the
| | 01:25 | renderer we're using.
| | 01:27 | So if you click on Classic 3D, it
automatically opens up to the Renderer
| | 01:32 | settings, so you could change
to Ray-traced if you wanted to.
| | 01:36 | I'm going to click Cancel to get back out of
there, and let's explore some of our light options.
| | 01:42 | Just because the scene is rather busy,
let's use the Solo options for the lights.
| | 01:47 | This is one of the things I love about
dealing with lights in After Effects.
| | 01:51 | If I solo the spotlight just by
clicking the Solo button, it's smart enough to
| | 01:55 | know that, yes I'm trying to solo the
spotlight, but also any of the materials
| | 02:00 | or layers that it's actually illuminating.
| | 02:04 | So when I select that, I have yes, my
Ground layer and my words, but you notice
| | 02:10 | I'm not seeing any shadows.
| | 02:12 | Let's enable the Ambient light so we have a
little bit better view as to what's going on.
| | 02:17 | So let's look at our Spotlight options.
| | 02:20 | If you double-click on the Spotlight,
you can see we have Light Settings.
| | 02:24 | Here, let me cancel this for a second.
| | 02:26 | These are the same Light Settings you
get everytime you go to create a new light.
| | 02:31 | It pops up here, okay.
| | 02:32 | So let's Cancel the new light, I'm
going to double-click my Spotlight and
| | 02:37 | adjust some of the settings.
| | 02:39 | Now first thing in the lower
left corner, we have Preview.
| | 02:42 | You want to make sure
that it's definitely enabled.
| | 02:45 | At the top with the Spot options, you
can always change any light to any of
| | 02:49 | the other four lights at any time
just by double-clicking the light and
| | 02:53 | bringing up your settings.
| | 02:55 | Let's leave this set for Spot and you
can change the color, so if I click on the
| | 03:00 | color, it's sort of like
adding a gel to the spotlight.
| | 03:03 | See when I click red, it's adding this
crazy red color, I don't want to do that,
| | 03:07 | so I'm just going to click Cancel.
| | 03:09 | Now the Intensity is the overall brightness of
the light and let's crank that up to around 340.
| | 03:17 | The Cone Angle, as you guessed it, how wide
that spotlight is getting thrown, or how narrow.
| | 03:23 | This is kind of cool if you want to
animate it and have it sort of illuminate
| | 03:26 | the word. The Cone Feather; this is how soft
the transition is from the edge of your cone.
| | 03:34 | Now Falloff is one of my favorites.
| | 03:36 | Inverse Square Clamped is the
one I used about 90% of the time.
| | 03:40 | This emulates how light falls off in the
real world, exponentially from the light source.
| | 03:45 | Smooth gives you your own
adjustments in terms of distance and radius.
| | 03:50 | Just so you can understand how
distance and radius works, let's change it to
| | 03:54 | Smooth and change the Radius down to around 25.
| | 04:00 | Now when I hit Tab, notice it's just a
soft transition that's happening here.
| | 04:04 | That's because the Falloff Distance is
set to 500, that means it's going to be
| | 04:08 | 500 pixels all the way out after the 25 Radius.
| | 04:15 | I'm going to change this to around
25, and press Tab, and you can see, wow!
| | 04:20 | It's pretty much gone.
| | 04:21 | Let's crank up the Radius here, and
now you can see there's my Falloff
| | 04:26 | Distance and if I start increasing that, notice
it's getting more smooth on the way out, okay.
| | 04:33 | Let's change the Radius back up to
500 and the Falloff Distance to 500 and
| | 04:40 | change the Falloff back
to Inverse Square Clamped.
| | 04:44 | Now I don't want to cast shadows right
now, but just know that spotlights, yes
| | 04:49 | you can cast shadows.
| | 04:51 | All you have to do is enable Cast Shadows.
| | 04:53 | I'll cover those options in the next light.
| | 04:57 | So make sure Cast Shadows
is disabled and click OK.
| | 05:01 | The Point Light is similar to the
spotlight only in that it has a light and
| | 05:07 | it can cast shadows.
| | 05:09 | But here, if we enable the Point light
and disable our spotlight, check it out,
| | 05:14 | this casts light in 360 degrees.
| | 05:18 | If I press C to grab my Camera tool and
started orbiting around the scene here,
| | 05:22 | you can see it's casting light very
much like an exposed light bulb would, and
| | 05:28 | that's why I love using the Point light.
| | 05:30 | If you double-click the Point Light
options, it has all the same options except
| | 05:34 | for the Cone Angle and Cone Feather.
| | 05:36 | This is where I cast shadows and you
can adjust how dark the shadows are as
| | 05:42 | well as the Diffusion, which is how
soft it gets when the shadow start flying
| | 05:48 | away from the words.
| | 05:50 | So if we bring the Diffusion
down to zero, you can see I have very
| | 05:53 | unrealistic shadows.
| | 05:55 | So I like to usually set
Diffusion somewhere in the 20s.
| | 05:58 | Well no, let's do 50, okay perfect.
| | 06:02 | With this Shadow Darkness and this
Diffusion, notice the shadow here is actually
| | 06:08 | set kind of orange. That's
controlled by the Material Options.
| | 06:13 | So when I click OK, I want to first
look at the kinet Material Options.
| | 06:18 | So to look in Material Options for
any layer, select kinet and press A twice
| | 06:24 | and here I have an option for Casts
Shadows, which is on, you can have it only
| | 06:30 | cast shadows or no shadows at all.
| | 06:33 | Now I had Shadows set to On and Light
Transmission determines how much of this
| | 06:38 | color will show through.
| | 06:40 | The other thing Light Transmission
does is it allows light to literally
| | 06:44 | illuminate the color as it
travels through the object.
| | 06:48 | See if we crank Light Transmission to
zero, since the Point light is behind our
| | 06:53 | word, we're not seeing any of the
colors of the word, nor are we seeing that
| | 06:57 | color bleed into the shadow.
| | 06:59 | So let's crank up Light Transmission here.
| | 07:02 | The other important settings you want
to understand for materials are Accept
| | 07:07 | Lights and Accept Shadows, both of
which are on for this individual layer.
| | 07:12 | Now these other options here, we will
definitely jump into the materials movie.
| | 07:18 | But for now, I think you can see how
lights and Material Options work together.
| | 07:23 | Now we've covered the Point light and the
Spot light, let's look at the Ambient light.
| | 07:28 | If you double-click, the only thing you
can adjust with the Ambient light is its
| | 07:31 | Intensity, and this just adjusts
the brightness of the scene overall.
| | 07:36 | The last light other than Ambient,
Point and Spot is actually a Parallel light.
| | 07:43 | So let's select our Point layer and
press Command+D to duplicate it and we'll
| | 07:49 | turn off the Solo for the original
Point layer and double-click Point 2, change
| | 07:54 | its Light Type to Parallel
and look at what we have here.
| | 07:58 | We have the same Intensity
options and Falloff Radius options.
| | 08:02 | We don't have the Cone Angle options,
we can Cast Shadows, but there is
| | 08:07 | no Diffusion option.
| | 08:09 | That's because there is a direction,
but since it's not coming out at an angle
| | 08:14 | or a cone, there's no
really diffuse setting for that.
| | 08:18 | Also there is no beginning and
there is no end to this light.
| | 08:23 | If we didn't have Falloff, if it will
set to None, this light will just move
| | 08:27 | infinitely in whatever direction it's pointed.
| | 08:30 | So actually let's change Falloff to
None and click OK and zoom in on the canvas
| | 08:35 | so you can kind of see our options here.
| | 08:38 | If we grab our Selection tool, notice I
can click and drag to move my Parallel
| | 08:45 | light, but if I hold down Command and
drag it works just like the camera with
| | 08:50 | the Point of Interest.
| | 08:52 | I can move it around in the scene and it's
always going to point at that Point of Interest.
| | 08:56 | So Parallel lights, again, no
beginning, no end, they just go forever but
| | 09:01 | they're pretty neat because
they can actually create shadows.
| | 09:06 | I hope you have enjoyed this rather in-
depth overview of lights and materials so
| | 09:11 | you could see how the scene was actually built.
| | 09:14 | In the next scene, we're going to
actually go ahead and add lights and make some
| | 09:19 | of these adjustments.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using 3D precompositions| 00:00 | When you start layering elements in
3D space, it's really important to
| | 00:04 | understand how precomposing works and
how material options work and how lights
| | 00:09 | work between the
precompositions and your final composition.
| | 00:13 | So if we look at our scene here,
you can see I have these two words,
| | 00:18 | they are casting shadows, the floor
is obviously set to accept shadows.
| | 00:23 | But if we zoom in to the left side of
our scene, here let me just press the
| | 00:27 | Spacebar and click and drag with my
left mouse, notice there are no shadows
| | 00:31 | on these windmills.
| | 00:33 | Now if we look in the timeline, you
can see we have composition layers.
| | 00:37 | Thankfully, they're all
referencing the same precomposition.
| | 00:40 | So let's just double-click on layer 7
and any changes we make in here will in
| | 00:45 | turn be updated for all of those
layers in the other composition.
| | 00:50 | So let's select all four layers by
clicking and dragging, starting in the lower
| | 00:54 | part of our timeline.
| | 00:56 | With all four layers selected, we can
press AA to open their Material Options.
| | 01:01 | Now we can select Casts Shadows, change
it from Off to On, and since we have all
| | 01:07 | four layers selected, Casts
Shadows is enabled for all four layers.
| | 01:12 | Now if you press the U key, we can
collapse all four layers at the same time and
| | 01:16 | then jump back to our 3D-Depth_of_Field.
| | 01:19 | Now notice we have shadows
being cast from these comps.
| | 01:24 | If we select any one of these
precomps and press AA to try and open
| | 01:28 | their Material Options, even though they
have 3D enabled, there are no Material Options.
| | 01:33 | If we open up those options here,
notice we just don't have them.
| | 01:38 | The reason we don't have them,
these layers are collapsed.
| | 01:41 | This little button right here, when I
click on it and hold, at the top you can
| | 01:45 | see this toggles Collapse Transformations.
| | 01:48 | So when you have a layer that is 3D
and you precompose it into another
| | 01:54 | composition, understand that not only
do the 3D parts of that layer move to the
| | 01:59 | precomp, but also their material
options when you enable Collapse Transform.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting depth of field| 00:00 | Adding depth of field to your scene
will do a lot to change an okay scene to a
| | 00:05 | wow, that's a really cool scene!
| | 00:07 | In order to add depth of field, you
need to change your camera settings.
| | 00:11 | But before you start going into your
camera settings, you probably want to make
| | 00:14 | sure that you have a true 3D scene.
| | 00:17 | So let's look at our project right here.
| | 00:19 | As you can see, we have a camera, we
have multiple lights, we have multiple
| | 00:23 | layers, and yes, of course, they all are 3D.
| | 00:27 | So the recipe is set, now it's time to cook.
| | 00:30 | So double-click the Camera and with
Camera Settings we have a Two-Node
| | 00:35 | Camera which is great.
| | 00:37 | We have the 50 millimeter Preset
which is the length of the lens.
| | 00:41 | To enable depth of field, you want to
come down here to the center of the Camera
| | 00:44 | Settings window and
select Enable Depth of Field.
| | 00:48 | Let's look at the F-Stop.
| | 00:50 | Let's change it from 5.6 to 2.8.
| | 00:53 | This is going to make the depth of
field more shallow, so less of the image is
| | 00:58 | going to be in focus. Now click OK.
| | 01:02 | You may not see depth of field
right away, so let's investigate.
| | 01:05 | If you look in the lower right corner
of your comp viewer, click on the 1 View
| | 01:09 | pulldown and change it to 2 Views.
| | 01:12 | In here, click on the left side and
make sure that your view is set to Top.
| | 01:18 | So if we zoom in just a little bit,
and I'm going to press the Spacebar and
| | 01:22 | left-click to re-center my
scene. Okay, see these shadows?
| | 01:27 | That's letting me know that these two
red lines correspond to these two words.
| | 01:32 | Now since these words don't have any depth,
that's why I'm only getting this line.
| | 01:37 | This triangular shape is
creating the camera's view.
| | 01:41 | So when we select the camera, let's
press AA to open up the Camera Options.
| | 01:47 | With the Camera Options selected,
notice we have a Focus Distance and Aperture
| | 01:52 | represented in pixels, and
then we have a Blur Level.
| | 01:56 | With Depth of Field On, the Focus
Distance is set at the same depth as the zoom.
| | 02:03 | If we click and drag to the left,
we're moving our Focus Distance.
| | 02:08 | See how the line in the top view is moving back?
| | 02:11 | That's letting us see where
the Focus Distance is set.
| | 02:14 | So let's just click and drag
and set that right over our title.
| | 02:19 | As we look back in our Active Camera
view, you can see that we're still not
| | 02:24 | seeing very much blur in our depth of field.
| | 02:27 | So to accentuate that, I'm
going to offset the camera.
| | 02:31 | A quick way to offset the camera view
is to press C on your keyboard which will
| | 02:35 | grab your camera controls.
| | 02:38 | Now hover your camera over to
Active Camera side of the viewer.
| | 02:42 | If you hold down the Option key on the
Mac or the Alt key on the PC and click
| | 02:47 | and drag, you'll automatically
start to orbit around the scene.
| | 02:52 | Now when I let go, it'll take a second
but the scene will redraw, and the camera
| | 02:57 | has now changed its angle of view to the scene.
| | 03:01 | We were holding Alt or Option, so we
as moved the camera, it moved around the
| | 03:05 | center point of the two nodes.
| | 03:08 | Okay, to heighten the blur, we
literally just need to increase the Blur Level.
| | 03:13 | So let's change it from 100% up
to about 285% and press Return.
| | 03:19 | Now it may take a second to refresh in
the scene, but once it refreshes, notice
| | 03:23 | this windmill is blurry, a certain part
of our title is in focus and then other
| | 03:28 | parts are out of focus.
| | 03:30 | Notice how our depth of field is
going right across our title right here.
| | 03:35 | Just so I don't accidentally move in
the scene, I'm going to grab my Selection
| | 03:38 | tool and change my 2 Views in my
comp viewer from 2 Views to 1 View.
| | 03:44 | If we resize our comp viewer, you can
definitely see the depth of field that
| | 03:48 | we've created within our scene.
| | 03:51 | I'm going to show you one more tip that
should definitely help you move depth of
| | 03:56 | field around your scenes.
| | 03:58 | You can tie it to an object
and then animate that object.
| | 04:01 | So to do that, we need to start
by adding an object to our scene.
| | 04:05 | So let's go up to the Layer
menu and choose New > Null Object.
| | 04:10 | With our Null Object in the scene,
we can enable 3D for that object.
| | 04:15 | In order to hide the depth of field to
this object, let's move our camera up in
| | 04:19 | the layer hierarchy so it's just below Layer 1.
| | 04:23 | Now we can select the Null 1 and hold
down Shift and select the Camera, and go up
| | 04:29 | to Layer down to Camera > Link
Focus Distance to Layer. Choose Link,
| | 04:36 | that way if you start to animate the Null
Object, the focus will move with that object.
| | 04:41 | So go ahead and choose that and notice
it'll take a second to refresh because
| | 04:45 | it's actually moving the depth of field.
| | 04:48 | Now if we deselect both layers by
clicking off of them and then reselect 1 and
| | 04:53 | press P, we can scrub in the Position
value to move our depth of field not on
| | 04:59 | the Y axis, but on X and Z,
so it's back out of the scene.
| | 05:05 | When the scene refreshes, you can tell
that we've now linked the depth of field
| | 05:10 | to the position of the Null Object.
| | 05:12 | Now there's one more thing I'm
going to point out before we head out.
| | 05:16 | Let's make the timeline a little
larger and if you look at the Camera Options
| | 05:19 | under the Focus Distance, the pink
numbers let me know that I've actually
| | 05:23 | applied a behavior tying the
Focus Distance to this Null Object.
| | 05:29 | But also, there are a host of other
options that we can enable within our camera
| | 05:34 | if we want to add a sense
of realism to the camera.
| | 05:37 | Now the one thing I like to play with
is the Iris Shape, and if you click on
| | 05:41 | that pulldown, you can change the Iris
Shape and that will definitely make a
| | 05:45 | difference in the realism of your scene.
| | 05:49 | So as you can see, adding depth of
field to your project is another way to add
| | 05:53 | realism and perspective to your scenes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
7. Exporting and RenderingCaching and prerendering| 00:00 | Undoubtedly, as you work in After
Effects, you'll end up building some
| | 00:03 | compositions that take some time to render.
| | 00:06 | And if you know you're going to be
reusing a certain element over and over
| | 00:09 | again, you might consider
prerendering or caching.
| | 00:13 | This will streamline your workflow.
| | 00:15 | Before you get into prerendering
and caching, you need to start with
| | 00:19 | general organization because this is a
workflow and it requires a little bit of prethought.
| | 00:24 | So let's look in our Project panel
and look at how things are organized.
| | 00:30 | Notice the bottom folder here, Windmill
Layers, if we open that, that has some
| | 00:33 | Illustrator files and I have
an Illustrator folder up here.
| | 00:36 | So let's drag the Windmill Layers
folder up in to the Illustrator Sources.
| | 00:40 | We also have Pre_Comps and just layer
Solids and of course our Output_Comp.
| | 00:45 | So double-click the Output_Comp just
to make sure that it's up and active and
| | 00:50 | let's look at our project.
| | 00:52 | To actually see what's going on,
let's load up a RAM Preview.
| | 00:58 | Now notice this is taking a
little bit of time to render.
| | 01:00 | If I press the Spacebar,
notice I can preview my render.
| | 01:05 | And as you can see, I've
got a bunch of windmills.
| | 01:08 | I have rather shallow depth of field.
| | 01:10 | I have an Adjustment layer with a Glow
applied to it, and the kineteco logo which
| | 01:16 | currently resides in two dimensions
and is applied with a Screen mode effect.
| | 01:21 | In looking at this, if I know the
background is going to stay the same but we
| | 01:26 | might need to change the logo, I would
go ahead and cache this background comp.
| | 01:32 | To do that, we need to just pre-compose
anything that we think would stay the same.
| | 01:38 | So let's start by selecting the two
things that we want to remain editable,
| | 01:42 | which is Layer 3, our logo layer,
and Layer 2, our Adjustment layer.
| | 01:47 | Let's drag those up to the top of the
layer hierarchy and then we can select all
| | 01:51 | the rest of the layers.
| | 01:52 | Just click on Camera 1 and Shift+Click on
Layer 9 to make sure they're all selected.
| | 01:57 | Now if you go up under Layer,
you can choose Pre-compose.
| | 02:01 | When we pre-compose, obviously, you
want to name it, so let's call this Mill
| | 02:06 | Pre Comp and click OK.
| | 02:10 | Now with the pre-comp set up here,
you can see the overall view of my scene
| | 02:15 | has not changed at all.
| | 02:16 | And if I just turn off the visibility
of Layer 3, you can see I can turn off
| | 02:21 | the entire composition.
| | 02:23 | The cool thing about caching is the fact
that it works downstream, meaning if we
| | 02:27 | open our Mill Pre Comp here by double
-clicking on it and then go up under
| | 02:32 | Composition > Cache Work Area
in Background, it's automatically going
| | 02:37 | to start caching this composition.
| | 02:39 | And the great thing is, any other
comps that are using this composition will
| | 02:45 | reference this cached data, so it
definitely will speed up your workflow.
| | 02:50 | Now I know caching is working because
I can see it up here in the upper right
| | 02:54 | in the Info window.
| | 02:55 | Also, in the timeline you can see I
have some blue lines that are just letting
| | 03:01 | me know the progress of the caching.
| | 03:03 | Now what's great as this is caching,
it is literally caching the background.
| | 03:07 | So I can go back to my Output_Comp and
make an adjustment to my Glow effect.
| | 03:13 | I'm just going to press E on my
keyboard and here let's bring the Glow
| | 03:17 | Radius down a little bit, and we can bring the
Threshold down and just make a minor adjustment.
| | 03:24 | There we go! Now the logo is glowing
a little more brightly.
| | 03:27 | Okay, now notice when we go back to
our comp here, it's still caching.
| | 03:32 | Let's go to our Output_Comp
and load up a RAM Preview.
| | 03:36 | I want you to notice that it's
definitely loading a little bit faster.
| | 03:41 | That's because it's referencing the cache.
| | 03:45 | Now let's go back to our Mill Pre
Comp so we can check out the cache.
| | 03:49 | After Effects is rather smart.
| | 03:51 | It will automatically try and
background-cache comps that are
| | 03:55 | really complicated.
| | 03:56 | So you don't have to force the issue,
but a lot of times, if I know a comp is
| | 04:01 | going to be kind of complicated, I'll
go up under Composition and manually tell
| | 04:06 | it to Cache the Work Area in the Background.
| | 04:09 | Let's jump back to our Output_
Comp and I want to talk to you
| | 04:12 | about prerendering.
| | 04:14 | I want to pre-render this Mill composition.
| | 04:17 | So when you select the Pre Comp layer
and go up under Composition and choose
| | 04:21 | Pre-render, look what happens.
| | 04:23 | It gets loaded in the render queue and
After Effects has loaded the main comp
| | 04:28 | that that layer was in, and
that's not what we want to do.
| | 04:32 | So if you're going to pre-render
anything and its pre-composed, what you want
| | 04:36 | to do is open that specific pre-composed
project, so the windmills without the logo.
| | 04:42 | With my Mill Pre Comp selected, I can
go to Composition > Pre-render.
| | 04:47 | Now let's delete the old comp by selecting
its name next to the queue and press Delete.
| | 04:53 | And here now under our Mill Comp,
notice by default, it will automatically
| | 04:57 | render to Best Settings, and if we click
on the Output Module, notice it's going
| | 05:01 | to render an animation full-quality
QuickTime with RGB and Alpha channel.
| | 05:06 | So if I click OK, this
will be good to go to render.
| | 05:11 | So in order to pre-render, all
you have to do is click Render.
| | 05:15 | This may take a second, so I will
join you as soon as this is finished.
| | 05:19 | So as you can see, we covered two
different processes for streamlining your
| | 05:25 | workflow, the first being caching,
and the next one prerendering.
| | 05:31 | When do you do one and not the other?
| | 05:33 | My general rule is this:
| | 05:35 | If you're working on your own system
and you're going to be staying there for a
| | 05:39 | while and you know you're going to be
bouncing around within that project for a
| | 05:42 | bit, go ahead and use
caching for your specific projects.
| | 05:47 | And like I said, remember, After
Effects will do this by default so you don't
| | 05:51 | always have to manually choose how to do this.
| | 05:54 | But if you think you're going to be
sending your project out to an external
| | 05:59 | designer or a different design house,
or maybe even building like a project
| | 06:04 | where, let's say, you're using some
filters in your pre-composition that you
| | 06:08 | know don't exist on another system, you
could pre-render that pre-comp and then
| | 06:13 | save this project out and send that.
| | 06:16 | So now, it's self-contained and you
can work on any system regardless of the
| | 06:21 | effects or filters that are loaded on it.
| | 06:23 | Either way, whether you use pre-render
or just caching, you'll definitely be
| | 06:28 | increasing your workflow by getting
the heavy lifting out of the way early
| | 06:32 | and often.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Understanding the alpha channels| 00:00 | When you render graphics with
transparency, you'll probably want to render the
| | 00:04 | graphic with an Alpha channel.
| | 00:05 | Now in the previous video, we did just that.
| | 00:08 | We rendered a QuickTime
that had an Alpha channel.
| | 00:10 | So to see what that Alpha channel
looks like, let's just select the Mill Pre
| | 00:15 | Comp video that we see up here in our
Project panel and drag it down to its own
| | 00:21 | composition in the bottom of the Project panel.
| | 00:24 | Now double-click the Mill Pre Comp 2
just in case it's not open on your system.
| | 00:28 | And here you can see we have just
the QuickTime and only the QuickTime.
| | 00:32 | If I turn the Visibility off,
you can see. That's it.
| | 00:35 | In the comp window here at the
bottom, you can see I have this
| | 00:41 | three-circle button.
| | 00:43 | If I click on that, notice I can
choose what channel I'd like to see, Red,
| | 00:47 | Green, Blue, or Alpha.
| | 00:50 | If I choose the Alpha channel, this
will show me whatever is transparent.
| | 00:54 | So whatever is white will allow the
graphic to be seen and whatever is black
| | 00:59 | will be transparent.
| | 01:01 | If we select the QuickTime file up in
the Project panel and look in the top of
| | 01:06 | the Project panel, you'll notice it says
Millions of Colors+ Premultiplied, and Animation.
| | 01:12 | That's letting us know that it's the
Animation codec and it has an Alpha channel
| | 01:16 | that is interpreted at Millions of
Colors+ a Premultiplied Alpha channel.
| | 01:23 | To properly see if the Alpha channel
is A, interpreted properly, and B, just
| | 01:28 | looks good, let's scroll up to 100%
magnification, and I'm going to press the
| | 01:33 | Spacebar and just click and drag to
move up in my window here, and just make
| | 01:37 | sure that our Resolution is set to Full.
| | 01:41 | Just so we can see that contrast,
let's jump back to the RGB channel by
| | 01:45 | clicking the button in the bottom of
the comp window, and then go up under Layer
| | 01:49 | and choose New Solid.
| | 01:51 | You can choose any bright
color that will contrast.
| | 01:54 | I'm going to choose this bright purple.
| | 01:57 | So if we click OK, I can drag that
New Solid down to the background layer.
| | 02:02 | And you can see, when you're looking
at Alpha channels, you want to look
| | 02:05 | bright at the edges to make sure that the
colors of your graphics aren't changing too much.
| | 02:12 | Notice how the white windmills, the
edges are just turning gray and then purple.
| | 02:16 | I don't have any funky, strange discoloration.
| | 02:20 | Well if the Alpha channel is
interpreted improperly, we would see that.
| | 02:25 | So let's just go into our Project panel and
right-click on the Mill Pre Comp QuickTime.
| | 02:31 | In here you can go to Interpret Footage
and under Main, we could look at how the
| | 02:37 | QuickTime Alpha channel is imported.
| | 02:40 | At the top, in the Alpha section, let's
go ahead and choose Straight instead of
| | 02:44 | Premultiplied, and then press Enter on
your keypad to say OK, and you notice,
| | 02:49 | see, I have these black edges.
| | 02:52 | I know you're thinking to yourself, okay, great!
| | 02:54 | I know there are Premultiplied and there are
Straight, but really what's the difference?
| | 02:58 | Well basically the two
different Alpha channels are created
| | 03:01 | slightly differently.
| | 03:03 | A Premultiplied channel means that
every single channel, here if we click this
| | 03:07 | button in the bottom in the comp window,
the Red channel, the Green channel, the
| | 03:11 | Blue channel, and the Alpha channel
will all have transparency data, and it's a
| | 03:16 | combination of all those
channels to make the transparency.
| | 03:19 | Premultiplied channels are the most
widely supported channels out there.
| | 03:25 | So if you're delivering a QuickTime
with an Alpha channel to someone and you
| | 03:30 | have no idea where its end use is going
to be, like what applications are going
| | 03:33 | to import it in, you want to
render it as Premultiplied.
| | 03:37 | If you're dealing with extraordinarily
bright colors or colors that need to be
| | 03:42 | very accurate, you want to render
your Alpha channels with straight Alpha
| | 03:46 | channels, because straight Alpha
channels are more color-accurate because none
| | 03:51 | of the transparency data is
stored in any of the color channels.
| | 03:54 | 100% of the transparency is
stored in the Alpha channel.
| | 03:59 | Now to change where those settings are,
you need to do that in the Render Queue.
| | 04:05 | So I'm just going to queue this up to
render one more time making sure that we
| | 04:09 | turn off the visibility of the background layer.
| | 04:12 | And with Pre Comp 2 selected, let's go up
under Composition > Add to Render Queue.
| | 04:17 | Now in the Render Queue, you
want to look at the Output Module.
| | 04:22 | If you click on the word Lossless, at the
top, you can see I could choose my Format.
| | 04:27 | I'm going to choose QuickTime.
| | 04:28 | You can choose Windows Media or what have you.
| | 04:30 | But under Video Output, here with
the Channels RGB, let's click on that
| | 04:35 | and choose RGB + Alpha.
| | 04:37 | Now once I go to Alpha, I can make
that change under the Depth, here it says
| | 04:43 | Millions of Colors, under the Color we
could change from Premultiplied (Matted)
| | 04:48 | to Straight (Unmatted).
| | 04:50 | Now if I were to render this, and click
OK, when I import this, this version I
| | 04:56 | would want to render or
interpret with a straight Alpha channel.
| | 04:59 | Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, if
you render it out of After Effects and
| | 05:03 | import it back into After Effects,
After Effects will automatically guess the
| | 05:06 | proper Alpha channel.
| | 05:08 | So when it comes to rendering graphics
with Alpha channels, you want to make
| | 05:11 | sure to pay attention to the specific
kind of Alpha channel, whether it'd be
| | 05:15 | Premultiplied or Straight.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using the Render Queue| 00:00 | When you're finished with a project
that usually means it's time to render.
| | 00:04 | And with modern technology, you'll
probably want to render in multiple
| | 00:08 | formats, for example, your full
resolution file and then maybe an H.264
| | 00:13 | version for your web site. Now guess what?
| | 00:16 | You can create both while only rendering once.
| | 00:19 | Yeah, let me repeat that.
| | 00:21 | You can create two files while
only rendering one composition.
| | 00:25 | This is really kind of a cool thing
and it's controlled by the Render Queue.
| | 00:28 | If you're more familiar with the
process of exporting your files when you're
| | 00:32 | finished working with them, you can add
comps to your Render Queue using that command.
| | 00:38 | So if we go up under File, we can go to
Export > Add to Render Queue.
| | 00:44 | When I chose that, it automatically
added the AA_Output_Comp file, because if we
| | 00:49 | open the AA_Output_Comp file, that
was what was selected in the timeline.
| | 00:55 | Now just while we're working, I'm
going to click these little grippies here
| | 00:58 | on the left-hand side of the Render Queue tab
and move it up to the top of my Comp Viewer.
| | 01:04 | That way we can have a little more clear
view as to what settings we're adjusting.
| | 01:09 | Like I said, render once create two files.
| | 01:12 | So if we go to our Output Module and
click on the word Lossless, you can see
| | 01:16 | okay, Animation RGB. This is perfect.
| | 01:20 | Under the Output To area, this is where you
can specify where you'd like to save your file.
| | 01:25 | So if you click on the pulldown,
notice you can create custom names for
| | 01:30 | your file, like the Project And the Comp
Name or just the Comp And Output Module Name.
| | 01:36 | So let's just leave it for Comp Name
and click on the actual name itself and
| | 01:41 | navigate in our exercise
files to our Footage folder.
| | 01:44 | Here I could create a new folder,
just call it renders, and click Create.
| | 01:49 | Now when we click Save, that's
where this file will be saved to.
| | 01:54 | Just so After Effects doesn't have to
render this twice, if you look at this
| | 01:58 | Plus button right here in the middle of
your Render Queue, go ahead and click it.
| | 02:03 | Notice I still have the same Render
settings but I have a different Output Module.
| | 02:08 | Now if you click on the pulldown
next to Lossless, we can choose H.264.
| | 02:13 | Now when we choose that preset, it
will load up and now I want you to click
| | 02:17 | on that preset, H.264.
| | 02:20 | In here, we could adjust the H.264
settings, also determine whether we want
| | 02:25 | to render an Alpha channel or just the RGB,
or more importantly, we could just resize.
| | 02:31 | So let's select Resize and make
sure Lock Aspect Ratio is set up.
| | 02:37 | Now we could just choose an
arbitrary smaller number, let's say, 640.
| | 02:42 | I'm going to press Tab and notice, it
automatically will scale that down to 50% of the size.
| | 02:48 | Now when we resize, it's important to
choose High Quality, especially if you're
| | 02:52 | sending it to the web for approval.
| | 02:54 | Now since there's no audio, we
can deselect the audio and click OK.
| | 02:58 | So to recap, in the Render Queue, we
have our best settings set to Full and
| | 03:04 | it's going to render full size, 24
frames a second, and it will render the
| | 03:09 | time span of the work area, okay.
| | 03:12 | Now if we click OK, you can see we
have two different output modules.
| | 03:17 | You can also open this triangle here to
see the direct path as to where you're
| | 03:23 | rendering these files.
| | 03:25 | So when we click Render, it's going to
take a second to render, but I want you
| | 03:30 | to notice when it's finished it will
ring once and when we go to check out our
| | 03:34 | files, you'll notice there are two files.
| | 03:39 | So now let's jump into the
Finder and look at our actual files.
| | 03:44 | If I navigate in the exercise files to
the Footage folder, under renders, here
| | 03:49 | you can see I have two files created,
an MPEG-4 that's only 1.9 MB and my full
| | 03:55 | resolution QuickTime animation which
is 83.4. Now let's jump back to After
| | 04:02 | Effects, and the last thing I
want to leave you with is this.
| | 04:05 | When you are working with your project
and you render versions of things out,
| | 04:10 | don't go back into your Render Queue
and select Previous Renders and press
| | 04:14 | Delete, because if you work in a work
group and somebody else wants to find out
| | 04:19 | where your files went, they could
always open your project, go to the Render
| | 04:22 | Queue and in the Output Module,
the file path is still listed.
| | 04:26 | So they'll know where to look, and
better yet, if you're a little bit like me
| | 04:30 | when you work, it's a great way
to keep tabs on yourself as well.
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| Rendering with Adobe Media Encoder| 00:00 | Adobe Media Encoder is a program
bundled with Adobe After Effects.
| | 00:04 | And since it's a separate
application, it can greatly increase your
| | 00:07 | throughput by allowing your system to
render in Media Encoder while you keep
| | 00:12 | working in After Effects.
| | 00:14 | Now you should have a pretty fast
system to take advantage of that workflow and
| | 00:18 | since the RAM and processor settings are
shared across After Effects, Premiere Pro,
| | 00:23 | and Media Encoder, you won't have
to worry about setting up all those
| | 00:26 | preferences again as long as you
already set them up in After Effects.
| | 00:30 | To get started with Media Encoder,
you need to navigate to your Program or
| | 00:34 | Applications folder and launch the app.
| | 00:38 | So once Media Encoder is open, you
notice we have a four-panel interface.
| | 00:43 | It starts in the upper-left and that's
where we can add After Effects projects
| | 00:48 | or QuickTime files or what have you.
| | 00:51 | Now if we move the Media Encoder to
the side, we could literally drag a
| | 00:55 | composition straight from
After Effects right into the queue.
| | 00:58 | But I like to work this way
where we just click the button in the
| | 01:02 | upper left-hand corner.
| | 01:03 | When you click on Add Source, navigate
through your exercise files to Ch_07, and
| | 01:09 | in Ch_07, choose the Media
Encoder project. Now click Open.
| | 01:14 | Notice in the bottom-left, it's
saying it's connecting via dynamic link.
| | 01:19 | What's great about that, it pulls up
everything that's in your Project panel
| | 01:23 | that's related to something
that's created within After Effects.
| | 01:27 | See, if we jump back into our After
Effects project, you can see we have two
| | 01:31 | compositions and three folders
all created within After Effects.
| | 01:35 | The QuickTime file will not
be referenced by Media Encoder.
| | 01:39 | So let's just jump back in here.
| | 01:40 | We don't want to output our Mill Pre Comp,
| | 01:43 | we want to output our Output Comp, yet
another reason for naming your output
| | 01:47 | comps with the word output.
| | 01:49 | Now if you click OK, Media Encoder
will use that composition to render any of
| | 01:55 | the files that you want to create,
starting with the left pulldown button here.
| | 01:59 | Let's go ahead and click on that.
| | 02:00 | This is where you can specify the
format that you'd like to create;
| | 02:04 | everything from H.264 to Blu-
ray, to MPEG2 for DVD, or QuickTime.
| | 02:10 | So let's choose QuickTime, and then
the Preset Options to the right of that
| | 02:15 | right here, let's click on that
pulldown, these are subset of options that
| | 02:19 | obviously will be directly related
to what you chose under the format.
| | 02:23 | I like this 720p setting, but
I do want to change the codec.
| | 02:27 | So let's click off of this Preset
pulldown and click directly on the name.
| | 02:33 | Now this may launch dynamic link
one more time, but that's okay.
| | 02:37 | It'll open up a preview
window for our Export Settings.
| | 02:41 | In this interface here, notice we can
see the source and then if we click on the
| | 02:46 | Output tab, this is going to give us
a preview as the output of the file.
| | 02:51 | Now down here in the bottom, you do
have a timeline, you can scrub through and
| | 02:55 | it does have the current-time indicator.
| | 02:58 | It will show you exactly what it's
going to render, and by default, it will
| | 03:01 | render the entire composition.
| | 03:04 | I remember our comp only had a small
work area, so I'm going to choose Work Area.
| | 03:09 | Now it's only going to render the first five
seconds which is exactly what I'm looking for.
| | 03:13 | Now let's go to the
right side of the interface.
| | 03:16 | Again, you have another option to go
here and change the format or the preset.
| | 03:22 | Down here under Output Name, this is
where you can click to not only name the
| | 03:26 | file you're going to create, but navigate
to a folder where you can output that file.
| | 03:31 | So I'm going to navigate to my
Footage folder and create a new folder in
| | 03:35 | here called Renders.
| | 03:37 | When we click Create, now we can click Save.
| | 03:40 | That's where this file is going to be saved.
| | 03:43 | Now down here in the bottom-right
corner, I could add a filter to my video or
| | 03:48 | adjust the video settings, yet again.
| | 03:50 | So in here, I could make a change,
let's say, I want to do Animation codec
| | 03:55 | instead of H.264 and that's great,
and I can get through the rest of these
| | 03:59 | options by scrolling with my mouse wheel.
| | 04:01 | But as you do that, I want you to be
aware, if your mouse hovers over any
| | 04:05 | of these pulldowns and you scroll, you can
accidentally change important information.
| | 04:10 | So you want to make sure when you're
scrolling that you're kind of lay off to
| | 04:13 | the side when you do that.
| | 04:15 | And as a matter of fact, since I'm in
Animation codec, I am going to increase
| | 04:19 | the quality to 100%.
| | 04:21 | This will make the file
size larger, but that's okay.
| | 04:25 | When you like the settings that you
have set up, you can go ahead and click OK
| | 04:29 | and now you notice I have a Custom setup.
| | 04:32 | Now if you want to create another
file, you can go to the System Presets.
| | 04:36 | For example, here, let's say, I
want to create something for an iPhone.
| | 04:40 | Well I can browse to my Devices, go to
the Apple section and scroll down, here
| | 04:45 | we go, iPod and iPhone.
| | 04:47 | Let's drag and drop that right into my queue.
| | 04:51 | When I let go, now I have a second
option, and if you look on the right-hand
| | 04:55 | side of the queue panel, you can
see under Output File, the file path.
| | 05:00 | Notice, it's automatically chosen the
same folder as the previous QuickTime.
| | 05:06 | If we click this Play button in the upper-
right, that will start the rendering process.
| | 05:10 | Now there's one last thing I want to
talk to you about and that is Watch Folders.
| | 05:16 | Watch Folders are interesting.
| | 05:17 | You can create a folder on your hard
drive and anytime you drop a file into
| | 05:22 | that folder, Media Encoder will
automatically start converting that file to
| | 05:26 | whatever format you choose.
| | 05:28 | Now setting this up is the same process we
went through setting files up in the queue.
| | 05:32 | I just want you to understand, there's one
setting in Preferences that you can adjust.
| | 05:37 | So if you go into Adobe Media Encoder and
Preferences in Windows, it's under Edit.
| | 05:43 | We'll go into our Preferences, in here,
there's an option to start the queue
| | 05:47 | automatically when idle
after a certain amount of time.
| | 05:50 | If you enable this, anytime you launch
Media Encoder and start adding files into
| | 05:55 | the Output queue, it's counting down.
| | 05:57 | So for example, once it gets to the
two minutes here, it will automatically
| | 06:01 | start encoding these files in the background.
| | 06:04 | When you have this enabled, that
also sets a timer for that Watch Folder.
| | 06:09 | So I don't like having to set up
for auto, so I'll just deselect.
| | 06:14 | If you don't set a time in here, when
you drop things into the Watch Folder,
| | 06:18 | Media Encoder will automatically
start running immediately on that file.
| | 06:22 | I'm going to click OK and tell you
one last thing about Watch Folders.
| | 06:26 | They support file formats.
| | 06:28 | They don't support project formats.
| | 06:30 | The reason being, if I drag an After
Effects project into a Watch Folder, it
| | 06:35 | wouldn't know which composition
to open up and start rendering.
| | 06:38 | So Watch Folders are great if you just
want to automatically encode, let's say,
| | 06:43 | a version for the iPod, the iPad,
and your Android device, every time you
| | 06:48 | create a full-res render.
| | 06:49 | You could set that up so Media
Encoder does that separately from your After
| | 06:53 | Effects renderers, but it's created from your
high-res After Effects renderers. You get the idea.
| | 06:59 | Now with Media Encoder, you can
definitely speed up your workflow because,
| | 07:04 | again, it's a separate application.
| | 07:06 | Just understand when you allocate RAM
and memory and all that other stuff, you
| | 07:11 | should have a pretty decent
system to keep things moving rapidly.
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| Archiving finished projects| 00:00 | Now that you finished a project all the
way through the rendering process, your
| | 00:04 | mind should be on one other
topic and that is archiving.
| | 00:08 | See, the process of archiving will help
you remove the files that After Effects
| | 00:12 | has referenced that you did
not use in your final project.
| | 00:15 | And when you do this, then you can
actually copy that file or folder to a piece
| | 00:20 | of archived media and then delete
anything else that you didn't need.
| | 00:24 | This will save you time, searching
through files, and it will actually save you
| | 00:29 | plenty of hard drive space.
| | 00:31 | In this project here, let's double-
click in the Project panel to make sure we
| | 00:34 | have the AA_Output_Comp selected.
| | 00:37 | Now we could sit here and go through
each of the pre-compositions and try and
| | 00:41 | figure out what QuickTimes we used or
what Illustrator files, et cetera, but
| | 00:46 | there's a much faster way.
| | 00:48 | Before we start removing things from
the project, let's take a look at all of
| | 00:52 | the project files that are referenced.
| | 00:54 | With my mouse over the Project panel,
I'm going to select the Tilde key which in
| | 00:58 | the upper-left corner of
your keyboard under the Escape key.
| | 01:02 | That will maximize my Project panel.
| | 01:05 | Now, if we click on a folder and Shift
+Click to select all of the folders,
| | 01:10 | hold down Command on the Mac, Ctrl on the PC,
and open the triangle for one of the folders.
| | 01:16 | Now in here, you can see I
have a lot of Illustrator sources.
| | 01:19 | I have my pre-comps, I have a
QuickTime pre-render and I have some
| | 01:25 | QuickTime video files.
| | 01:26 | Now rather than having to go
through all of this, if you want to save
| | 01:32 | anything out of a project that's
involved with a specific composition, you can
| | 01:36 | select that composition in your After
Effects project and go up under File and
| | 01:41 | go to Reduce Project.
| | 01:44 | I don't want to do that with this
because our final project was this Output Comp.
| | 01:49 | So I'm going to select the Output Comp
and go to File > Reduce Project,
| | 01:55 | and then I'll get a menu that
pops up and says After Effects:
| | 01:58 | 12 items that were not used by the
selected items have been deleted.
| | 02:02 | You can undo if desired.
| | 02:04 | So I'm going to click OK and now,
if you notice, okay, I still have my
| | 02:08 | Illustrator files, but I only have one
QuickTime file which is my pre-render and
| | 02:12 | only one layer Solid.
| | 02:14 | Now if we double-click our Output Comp
again, we'll open up our interface and
| | 02:19 | you can see I have my Output comp and
my Pre comp and that's pretty much it.
| | 02:24 | You can do this function also when you're
archiving in the actual archiving process.
| | 02:31 | So I like to go up under File with my
comp selected and just say Collect Files.
| | 02:37 | Now here, it says your
project needs to be saved first.
| | 02:39 | Do you want to save it?
| | 02:41 | Just for the sake of having the original
archiving project for you to go through
| | 02:47 | this process, I'm going to save this as
a different name which you will not see
| | 02:51 | in your exercise files. Okay.
| | 02:55 | So now I've saved this archived version,
I can go to File and choose Collect
| | 02:59 | Files and here I could choose, do I want
to collect everything in the project or
| | 03:05 | just for the selected comps?
| | 03:07 | See, if I chose just For Selected Comps,
I could then select Reduce Project,
| | 03:11 | which will do the exact same thing that
we just went through a few minutes ago.
| | 03:15 | Down here in the lower left, it
tells me exactly how much data will be
| | 03:20 | collected, as well as any effects that are used.
| | 03:23 | This report is really helpful because
when you collect your file, you could then
| | 03:28 | move it to a different system and on
that different system, you would definitely
| | 03:31 | want to know exactly what
effects were being used.
| | 03:35 | So when I click Collect, we can just
choose the Ch_07 folder, and notice it
| | 03:40 | will automatically name it the name of
your project and then add the word folder
| | 03:44 | at the end because it's
going to create a folder.
| | 03:46 | So let's click Save.
| | 03:48 | Now it's going to make a duplicate file
of anything that we referenced in this
| | 03:53 | project and then open that project.
| | 03:56 | Now I'm just going to jump to the
Finder, so you can see what it looks like
| | 03:59 | when it's actually collected.
| | 04:01 | Navigating from my Desktop to my
exercise files and then Ch_07, here you can see
| | 04:07 | I have my sample folder and within that
folder, I have my After Effects project,
| | 04:13 | my Footage, any sources that I have
which happened to be an Illustrator file, my
| | 04:18 | pre-rendered QuickTime and then,
of course, this text document.
| | 04:23 | And if we look at the text document,
here you can see the comps that were
| | 04:26 | collected, the number of files,
where it was collected from, and then sure
| | 04:31 | enough, it lists all the
plug-ins that you're using.
| | 04:34 | So if you were to send this to
another system or archive it, you can just
| | 04:40 | archive this entire folder with
everything contained within and you can see
| | 04:44 | that everything has been nicely
archived efficiently with only the pieces of
| | 04:49 | footage that you used.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
8. Going in Depth with Type and ShapesCreating type animators| 00:00 | Now it's pretty common to have to create
type that exists over a busy background.
| | 00:04 | So if we look at our project here,
let's scrub in the timeline with the
| | 00:08 | current-time indicator.
| | 00:09 | And as you can see, most
definitely we have a busy background.
| | 00:13 | And if you look in the timeline, it's
a QuickTime that's been prerendered.
| | 00:17 | This is the perfect example for pre-
rendering because it's going to save us a
| | 00:21 | lot of computing power since
all we're changing is the type.
| | 00:25 | I mentioned type, obviously, we
need to add type into the scene.
| | 00:29 | So for this project, we're going to
add one word, but we'll change it into
| | 00:33 | another word and then we want to
make that animation pop by animating its
| | 00:38 | color and its scale.
| | 00:40 | So to get started adding a word,
obviously, we need to go up to our Tool panel
| | 00:45 | and click on the Text tool.
| | 00:47 | Now if the Character panel and
Paragraph panel didn't open, come over here to
| | 00:52 | this button and toggle it in the
top center part of the interface.
| | 00:56 | With the Text tool, let's just add our
text right here in the middle of our viewer.
| | 01:01 | If you just click, we can add the word
energy, and press Enter on your keyboard to set.
| | 01:09 | I had yellow as a color, if you want
to choose a different color, just make
| | 01:13 | sure you have the first layer selected and then
click in the Color Well and change your color.
| | 01:18 | Now I'm just going to make this a
little more saturated and click OK.
| | 01:23 | I do have a color palette that I would like
to stick to, and that's in this Logo layer.
| | 01:28 | Notice it's an Illustrator file.
| | 01:30 | If we double-click this file to open it
in its own footage window, any time we
| | 01:34 | go to reselect the text the
footage window is going to disappear.
| | 01:38 | So let's select the footage window and click
this lock on the left-hand side of the tab.
| | 01:44 | If you click on little grippy icons,
we can drag it to the left side of our
| | 01:48 | Viewer window and now we can see
our logo and our new animation.
| | 01:53 | Now let's just click in between the
Viewer and the Footage window just to make
| | 01:58 | it really small, and then I'm going to
middle-click and drag on the Footage
| | 02:02 | window to bring these shapes up.
| | 02:05 | This way now, if I want my colors to
match exactly my color palette, I can
| | 02:10 | do that by just grabbing my Eyedropper and
then choosing, let's say, this teal color.
| | 02:15 | Now notice that didn't work and that
was just because I didn't select my layer
| | 02:19 | first in the Layers panel.
| | 02:22 | Now when I grab my Eyedropper and click, it's
going to change to the new color. Okay, perfect!
| | 02:28 | Now as I'm looking at my type,
I'm realizing the background is
| | 02:31 | extraordinarily busy.
| | 02:32 | And since this isn't going to change
and I just want to focus on the animation,
| | 02:36 | let's turn off the video.
| | 02:38 | Now we can focus solely on our text.
| | 02:42 | So to animate the text we
need to open up the Text Options.
| | 02:45 | So open up the Options for the Text
layer and then open up the Text sub-options.
| | 02:51 | Notice with Text layers, we just have
more and more little arrows that we can
| | 02:55 | open up to give us more options.
| | 02:58 | Right now, I want to add a
keyframe for my source text.
| | 03:01 | So let's move our current-time
indicator to 1 second in the timeline and add a
| | 03:06 | keyframe for the source text.
| | 03:09 | If we move our current-time indicator to
2 seconds, this is where we will change
| | 03:14 | our word and the color of
the word and the typeface.
| | 03:17 | But before we do that, I want you to
notice the keyframe that was created was a
| | 03:21 | Hold Keyframe, I know that
because it's square. Okay.
| | 03:25 | Now to change the text, you should have
the Selector tool active, if you don't
| | 03:30 | make sure it's active.
| | 03:32 | And now in the canvas, just double-
click directly over top of the word.
| | 03:37 | When you do that, the entire word is selected.
| | 03:40 | If you go over to the Character panel
and highlight Rockwell here, we can scroll
| | 03:45 | up and down and preview the
typefaces with the Arrow key on our keyboard.
| | 03:49 | I already know what I want to change my
text to, so I'm just going to click on
| | 03:54 | the pulldown and scroll
up until we get to Arial.
| | 03:58 | Okay, now with Arial
selected, let's change the color.
| | 04:03 | I'm just going to grab my Eyedropper and
go over here and choose this yellow color.
| | 04:08 | I like all these changes that I've made.
| | 04:10 | Let's grab our Selection tool, and you
notice, now our second keyframe has been added.
| | 04:17 | If we scrub in the timeline you
can see here's energy and energy.
| | 04:22 | We have the color and the
typeface, let's change the word.
| | 04:25 | To jump back in the timeline, just
press J and double-click the word again.
| | 04:30 | Now let's change it from energy to power.
| | 04:33 | And you can press Enter on your
keypad to set the type or yet again, grab
| | 04:38 | the Selection tool.
| | 04:39 | Okay, so now we have our two words changing.
| | 04:43 | So with source text, as you can see,
you can change the actual source of the
| | 04:47 | text and it makes reference to its
color and outline and typeface, et cetera.
| | 04:53 | If you want to create some more
organic animations, you need to go to
| | 04:57 | the Animate button.
| | 04:59 | If you click on this button right here,
it will bring up a flyout menu of all
| | 05:04 | the different parameters that you can animate.
| | 05:07 | So let's change the Fill
Color for the word energy.
| | 05:12 | Choose Fill Color > RGB and now you
notice, this red color is overriding any of
| | 05:18 | the other values that I have set for energy.
| | 05:21 | Even if we scrub in the timeline down to
the second keyframe, notice the word in
| | 05:25 | the typeface will change but
the color value is overridden.
| | 05:29 | Any time you create animators, those
values will override the original source
| | 05:35 | text, unless you change the animator.
| | 05:38 | Let's scroll down in our timeline here
so you can see an animator was added when
| | 05:43 | we added the text with the Animate button.
| | 05:45 | As a matter of fact, I'm just going to
make my timeline a little larger here.
| | 05:50 | Okay, in the category Animator,
there is option for Range Selector.
| | 05:55 | If we open those options, I
want you to click on Start.
| | 05:58 | Notice when Start is selected, if we
grab our Selection tool, here click on the
| | 06:02 | left side and start dragging.
| | 06:04 | And notice I'm selecting less and less of the
word and the percentage for Start is changing.
| | 06:10 | If we click on the right side and drag,
you'll notice the end is changing.
| | 06:15 | Now what's bothering me is the
fact that these are percentages.
| | 06:19 | So if you go to the Advanced Options
down here under Units, you can change
| | 06:23 | the pulldown to Index.
| | 06:25 | And sure enough, now within the
Index, you can see it's starting at
| | 06:29 | character two, so these two, and then it's
ending at character four; one, two, three, four.
| | 06:36 | So two out of the four are selected.
| | 06:39 | So let's look at Offset.
| | 06:41 | What I like to do when I'm animating is
click and drag on a parameter so I can
| | 06:45 | see how it might animate.
| | 06:47 | So I like to scrub back and forth.
| | 06:49 | As I drag back to the left, notice when
I get to -5, I can see now my animator
| | 06:56 | is completely off of the word and I'm
ready to use this as my start point.
| | 07:00 | So let's add a keyframe for Offset.
| | 07:04 | And let's move our current-time
indicator down to 2 seconds in one frame just
| | 07:09 | after the word changes.
| | 07:11 | I'm going to scrub my Offset value to the
right, and there we go, we'll set it to four.
| | 07:18 | Now as I scrub through this, you can see,
I have the color changing and when it
| | 07:22 | gets just to the other side, the
word changes and the color changes.
| | 07:26 | So that looks pretty cool.
| | 07:27 | Now I want you to move your current-time
indicator to right in the middle of the animation.
| | 07:32 | There is something else I want you
to pay attention to and that's the
| | 07:36 | mode option down here.
| | 07:38 | Now to accentuate what we're looking at, I
want to add another parameter to the animation.
| | 07:44 | So if you want to add another parameter
to an existing animation, you go to that
| | 07:49 | animator and there is an Add button.
| | 07:51 | So if I click on that pulldown
menu, let's add a Property of Scale.
| | 07:57 | And notice these properties are the
exact same options that I had up here under
| | 08:02 | this Animate button.
| | 08:04 | The difference being, I know I'm adding
this, specifically to the Animator 1 option.
| | 08:11 | So now as I scroll down here to the bottom,
you can see I have a scale set to 100%.
| | 08:17 | If we look at the mode, it's set to Add.
| | 08:20 | Now since I'm already at 100% scale
for my layer itself, when I add it's not
| | 08:26 | going to add anything else, unless I
adjust the Scale percentage down here.
| | 08:32 | So let's scale this up to around 130.
| | 08:37 | Now you can see how the scale is
happening and the color is happening.
| | 08:41 | If I click and drag you
can see it's moving across.
| | 08:45 | To bundle up these last couple of
options here, we have Shape, Smoothness,
| | 08:50 | Ease High and Ease Low.
| | 08:52 | When you look at the Shape, that's how
these selectors are moving across the letters.
| | 08:58 | So right now, it's set to Square.
| | 09:00 | Now if we bring the Smoothness all the way
down, look at what happens to these letters.
| | 09:04 | I'm going to scrub it down to 0
and we're not seeing anything.
| | 09:07 | We'll see something when we scrub.
| | 09:10 | Notice how the letters are just
popping from 0 to the 130 value?
| | 09:15 | That's because the shape is
square and it's not smooth at all.
| | 09:19 | So it's like a right angle going through there.
| | 09:21 | If you drag up to 100%, now
you can see it's smooth across.
| | 09:27 | By all means, you could click-
through this Shape pulldown and see how the
| | 09:31 | different options change your animation,
but I think you understand how we can
| | 09:35 | make some adjustments with here.
| | 09:37 | Ease High and Ease Low, just smooth out
the transition from the state before the
| | 09:45 | selector and after the selector or
the animator rolls over the type.
| | 09:51 | Now that you understand the basics of
creating one animator, I just want to come
| | 09:55 | back up to the top here and show you
that you can create a second animator.
| | 10:00 | The most important thing if you want
to add a second animator is to make sure
| | 10:03 | that you don't have the Animator 1 selected.
| | 10:07 | So just to play it safe, I'm going to
select the text up here and then go to
| | 10:11 | Animate, and if we add another
parameter, let's choose Position.
| | 10:17 | Now I have a completely separate
animator, and if we expand the Range Selector
| | 10:21 | options, you can see I have a
whole new set of range selections.
| | 10:26 | I don't want this animator applied to
this word, so let's go ahead and select
| | 10:30 | Animator 2, and if you ever need to
delete one, you just press Delete once
| | 10:35 | you've selected the word animator.
| | 10:38 | So if we scroll back up to the top and
collapse our Energy layer, there's one
| | 10:42 | other thing I want to point out.
| | 10:44 | After you get comfortable creating
your own animations with animators, you
| | 10:48 | should go up to the Animation panel.
| | 10:50 | As long as you have a Text layer
selected when you go to Animation, there's an
| | 10:54 | option for Browse Presets.
| | 10:56 | I want you to click on that because
there is a huge library of presets that
| | 11:02 | Adobe's already made for you, and you
can browse through those in Adobe Bridge.
| | 11:08 | Now once the presets are open in Bridge,
open the Text layer and within the Text
| | 11:13 | layer, you can check out all
the different kinds of animations.
| | 11:16 | So let's choose Animate In.
| | 11:19 | Notice here, I can select on any one of
the preset animations and we'll get a
| | 11:26 | preview here on the right-hand side.
| | 11:28 | If it's a little sluggish, don't worry
that's just your machine loading up the previews.
| | 11:34 | If there was something that I liked
with these animations, you can easily apply
| | 11:38 | them to your Text layer as long as you
had the Text layer selected before you
| | 11:43 | browse the animator.
| | 11:44 | All you have to do is double-click your preset.
| | 11:47 | So with that preset selected, you can
open up the Text layer and notice, I have
| | 11:53 | a second animator that's doing
nothing but what I set from my preset.
| | 11:58 | And I can also turn off the visibility
of Animator 1, so as we go through the
| | 12:02 | preset you can see its animating based
on what we had set up using the preset.
| | 12:08 | This is a great way to go reverse
engineer your animations and continue to grow
| | 12:14 | with text animators.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Animating type in 3D space| 00:00 | Animating text in 3D space is really no
different than animating text in 2D space.
| | 00:05 | You just have to be a little more methodical
with keeping track of exactly where you are.
| | 00:10 | For this animation, we're going to
create a text animation, where the word wind
| | 00:16 | will zoom out towards the camera and
then disappear back away from the camera,
| | 00:20 | and of course, it will zoom out in 3D space.
| | 00:22 | Now just so you know, in the previous
video, we animated this Text layer at five
| | 00:28 | seconds and so this animation is
going to be five seconds as well.
| | 00:33 | We are eventually going to add all
of these text animations together to
| | 00:38 | create one big animation.
| | 00:40 | So now that we understand that,
let's press Home to move our current-time
| | 00:43 | indicator to the start of the project
and press Command+T or Ctrl+T on the PC
| | 00:48 | to grab the Text tool.
| | 00:50 | Now hover your mouse over the canvas and click.
| | 00:53 | With our cursor set in the canvas,
let's type W-I-N-D in all caps and grab the
| | 00:59 | Selection tool to set our text.
| | 01:02 | Now since I want this to shoot
out towards the camera, I'm going to
| | 01:06 | actually make the text a little bit larger by
clicking and dragging in the Paragraph panel.
| | 01:11 | If you don't see the Paragraph panel,
quickly grab your Text tool and just
| | 01:15 | toggle this button on and off.
| | 01:17 | Okay, back to our Selection tool.
| | 01:19 | Let's move wind down into the center
of our comp and enable 3D on the layer.
| | 01:26 | Now if you press P on your keyboard,
notice if you scrub on the Z parameter,
| | 01:31 | wind is moving together as one big word.
| | 01:35 | Well that's kind of in
3D space but not exactly.
| | 01:38 | So let's Command+Z or Ctrl+Z to undo
and open up the Properties for WIND, and
| | 01:45 | the open up the Text Properties.
| | 01:47 | There is nothing in here
like a check box to enable 3D.
| | 01:50 | It's actually under the Animate menu.
| | 01:52 | So click on the Animate button and
there we go, Enable Per-character 3D.
| | 01:57 | So when we select that, now you
notice I have slight, small bounding boxes
| | 02:03 | around each of the individual letters.
| | 02:05 | And also look at the 3D switch;
| | 02:08 | it has two boxes letting me know that
not only is the layer in 3D space but each
| | 02:13 | individual character.
| | 02:15 | The way I like to work with animating
things in 3D space is to set everything
| | 02:21 | up in its starting position with the
selector having selected absolutely everything.
| | 02:27 | So to show you what I mean, let's add
the parameters we're going to animate.
| | 02:31 | So let's go back to the Animate
button and click, and we'll start by
| | 02:35 | animating position.
| | 02:37 | And if you just click and drag on the Z
position, drag to the right to move the
| | 02:42 | wind back in the comp.
| | 02:43 | Let's drag it to around 1200.
| | 02:46 | Okay, that's look good.
| | 02:47 | And now I want the letters to fade in as well.
| | 02:51 | So if we go to Add, we can go
to the Property and add Opacity.
| | 02:56 | Notice I didn't have to go back up to
Animate since the animator already has
| | 03:00 | this nice Add button.
| | 03:02 | So let's go to Property and choose Opacity.
| | 03:04 | Now with Opacity set up, since I want
this to start at 0% Opacity, let's click
| | 03:12 | and drag the parameter to set it to 0.
| | 03:15 | Now let's open the Range Selector.
| | 03:17 | As you can see, it selected everything
because its start is at 0 and its end as 100%.
| | 03:25 | Most of the time when I animate type,
I like to just animate the offset, so
| | 03:29 | let's see what happens if we scrub the offset,
because this is how we want our text to start.
| | 03:34 | If we scrub it to the right, when it
gets to 100% you can see everything and
| | 03:39 | it's exactly at the front of the scene
the way we want, but notice it stops.
| | 03:45 | In this animation, I want this to pop-out
towards us and then go back away from the camera.
| | 03:50 | I don't want to go back this way
because I'm having the letters go back
| | 03:54 | backwards, I want it to literally just
kind of strobe through all the letters
| | 03:58 | pop-in and then they all pop-out.
| | 04:01 | So to do that, we need to actually go
to the Advanced Tab and change the mode
| | 04:05 | from Add to Subtract.
| | 04:09 | This way when we adjust the Offset
all the way back to 0, notice nothing is
| | 04:14 | selected and as we scrub through when
it hits 0, the word is going to be all
| | 04:19 | up, and now as we continue on to 100%
through the Offset, it's back to its
| | 04:27 | starting point.
| | 04:28 | So to reiterate, let's scroll
down and look at the mode again.
| | 04:32 | See, when I set it up to Add, this
is how we had it set up originally.
| | 04:37 | As we animate the Offset, if I drag
it back to the beginning, notice it's
| | 04:41 | starting where I want the middle to be
and halfway through that's where I want
| | 04:45 | the end and the beginning to be.
| | 04:47 | So it makes sense to go down to the
mode and change it to Subtract because that
| | 04:53 | would give me the inverse of
the animation we just created.
| | 04:57 | To literally create the animation, we
now need to finally add our keyframes.
| | 05:02 | So let's scroll back up to the Offset
parameter and click and drag all the way
| | 05:06 | to the left and create your first keyframe.
| | 05:11 | Now move the current-time indicator two
seconds down the timeline and scrub the
| | 05:16 | Offset all the way through to 100%.
| | 05:20 | This way, you can see when you press 0
to load up a RAM Preview, it's going to
| | 05:25 | start away and faded out and then back in.
| | 05:31 | Just to give this a little bit more
flavor, I want to adjust the rotation
| | 05:35 | because this coming out looks
very similar to a scale to me.
| | 05:39 | So if we collapse the Text layer and
just press R to open the Orientation or the
| | 05:45 | Rotation, we can just set the
Rotation for the layer itself.
| | 05:49 | Now in order to see what we're doing in
terms of how things are moving through
| | 05:53 | the scene, let's move the current-time
indicator to the middle of our animation.
| | 05:57 | That way when we adjust the Y rotation
here, you get a more clear picture as to
| | 06:02 | how far the letters are travelling
from their source and their end positions.
| | 06:08 | Let's add a little bit of the X rotation
here because I want it to sort of popup
| | 06:14 | and Z rotation just to kind
of give it a little flavor.
| | 06:18 | All right, so there we have wind
pop-out and then fade back away.
| | 06:24 | So as you can see, animating text
in 3D space is remarkably similar to
| | 06:29 | animating text in 2D space.
| | 06:31 | You just get the added
benefit of the third dimension.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Composing 3D type| 00:00 | So to start with our project, let's scrub
with our current-time indicator in the timeline.
| | 00:05 | And as you can see, we have definitely
created 2D type that's moving in 3D space.
| | 00:11 | To transition this type to actually
have dimension and exist as 3D type in 3D
| | 00:16 | space, we need to change our renderer.
| | 00:19 | So look in the upper right-hand
corner of your comp window and click on
| | 00:23 | the classic 3D button.
| | 00:25 | In the Advanced tab for the Comp
Settings, click on the Classic 3D pulldown and
| | 00:30 | choose Ray-traced 3D.
| | 00:32 | Now we switch the Renderer to Ray-
traced 3D and I just want you to make note of
| | 00:37 | these options if you
click on the Options button.
| | 00:39 | Ray-tracing is set to 3 and the
Anti-Aliasing Filter is set to Box.
| | 00:45 | Before we do a high-res output, we'll
need to change this Ray-tracing setting to
| | 00:49 | a much higher setting.
| | 00:51 | And we may very well want to change
the Anti-aliasing Filter up as well, but
| | 00:56 | let's see after we create something.
| | 00:58 | So click OK and click OK one more
time and let's select our Wind layer.
| | 01:06 | Now within the text itself, since
we've changed our Renderer to Ray-traced 3D,
| | 01:11 | we can open up the Text Options and
Collapse Transform, and here next to
| | 01:16 | Geometry Options, let's open that triangle.
| | 01:19 | And sure enough, we have an
option for Extrusion Depth.
| | 01:23 | So let's change that to 40.
| | 01:26 | If we look at our type here, let's make
sure we're looking at our type at 100%
| | 01:31 | magnification and at Full Quality.
| | 01:34 | Okay, I'm just going to press the
Spacebar and click and drag to get this more
| | 01:39 | centered in the scene.
| | 01:40 | Just so we can focus completely on the
type, let's turn off the visibility of
| | 01:44 | our background layer.
| | 01:46 | With the type set like this, I know
it's kind of hard to see any definition
| | 01:50 | as to what's going on.
| | 01:51 | So one way we can bring
definition is by adding a bevel.
| | 01:55 | So if we go to the Bevel Style, let's
change the pulldown from None to Convex
| | 02:01 | and we can leave the Bevel Style to 2.0 for now.
| | 02:04 | As you can see, we still don't have any
dimension, but trust me, when we start
| | 02:08 | making some more adjustments,
you'll see that bevel in a heartbeat.
| | 02:12 | Let's start by looking at the Material Options.
| | 02:14 | If you open the Material Options and
start to scroll down you should see there
| | 02:18 | are many, many more options
than in the previous renderer.
| | 02:23 | Now the first one we want to
adjust is the Transparency Option.
| | 02:27 | If you make these a little
transparent, you'll be able to see through the
| | 02:31 | dimensions and actually get
some sense of perspective.
| | 02:34 | So let's change the
Transparency to a value of 20%.
| | 02:39 | Some of these options will go way in-
depth in the last chapter of our course,
| | 02:44 | but let's look at making some
minor adjustments in here now.
| | 02:48 | Now in addition to adjusting the
Transparency, the other thing we should look at
| | 02:52 | changing is the Reflection Intensity.
| | 02:55 | Now the Reflection Intensity, we
should set to around 23, and I know this
| | 03:00 | because I've already set this,
so just change this for now.
| | 03:03 | But if you look as we make that
adjustment, now you can see some of these
| | 03:09 | dimensions popping out.
| | 03:11 | And sure enough along the edge of
the D here, you definitely get some
| | 03:14 | perspective in terms of
that bevel that we added.
| | 03:18 | Okay, now we've made some minor
adjustments to our Material Settings, but
| | 03:22 | another way to give a sense of strong
dimension is to actually change the colors
| | 03:27 | of the face, the bevel, the
sides and the back of our type.
| | 03:30 | So to do that, let's scroll back up in
our timeline and go to the Animate menu.
| | 03:36 | If you click on the Animate menu,
notice there are categories for Front, Bevel,
| | 03:41 | Side and sure enough, Back.
| | 03:43 | If you notice, when we roll over these
options, they are the same for every single side.
| | 03:48 | So all I want to do for this
video is just change the color.
| | 03:52 | So under the Front, let's
go to Color and choose RGB.
| | 03:56 | Now for the Front Color I want to
choose kind of a light blue, so let's change
| | 04:00 | it from red to this kind of
light blue color and click OK.
| | 04:06 | Instead of adding another animator by
clicking Animate, I just want to keep
| | 04:11 | adding my color selections to Animator 2.
| | 04:14 | So I'm going to rename Animator 2 by
selecting it and pressing Return on my
| | 04:17 | keyboard, let's name this 3D Color.
| | 04:21 | Okay, now we can click back on Add
for our new 3D Color Animator and change
| | 04:27 | the color of the Bevel.
| | 04:29 | Again we go to Bevel > Color > RGB.
| | 04:32 | Since I want to start from this first
color we set, just grab the Dropper and
| | 04:36 | sample the Front Color.
| | 04:38 | Usually, since I want the Bevel as a
highlight, let's change the Bevel Color to
| | 04:42 | be a little more bright, and click OK.
| | 04:44 | Now I'm going to scroll down in the
timeline just so we have more space.
| | 04:49 | So let's go back to the Add button and go to
the Property and Side, change the Color to RGB.
| | 04:57 | Now again, we'll sample from the
Front Color, and the sides typically are a
| | 05:02 | little darker so let's click in the
Color Well and just change this to be a
| | 05:08 | little darker and click OK.
| | 05:10 | Now you guessed it, we're going to add one
more time and we'll add color to the back.
| | 05:16 | Again, let's sample, but this time
we'll sample from the Front Color, so the
| | 05:20 | front color and the back
color will end up matching.
| | 05:23 | Now obviously, if you want to
accentuate the differences between the different
| | 05:27 | sides, you can definitely do so by
intensifying the changes in the colors.
| | 05:32 | But typically, when you go to sample
3D letters and you're polishing how they
| | 05:37 | look, you'll want to use lights
to add that sense of dimension.
| | 05:41 | Now instead of adding lights, I want
to show you what it looks like when you
| | 05:44 | actually increase the Ray-traced renderer.
| | 05:47 | So instead of going up and just clicking
on the ray-traced 3D button, I want you
| | 05:51 | to hold Command on the Mac or Ctrl on
the PC, and then click on that button.
| | 05:55 | This will automatically jump
us to the Renderer Options.
| | 05:59 | I want to increase the Ray-tracing
Quality, let's jump it way up there.
| | 06:03 | We'll change it to 12, in the Anti-Aliasing
Filter, let's change it from Box to Cubic.
| | 06:09 | Ray-tracing Quality; let me
just explain how Ray-tracing works.
| | 06:14 | If you look in the letters here, you can
see that there are little dots and that
| | 06:20 | noise is created as light rays
bounce around through the pixels.
| | 06:24 | So increasing the quality increases the
number of bounces of those light rays to
| | 06:28 | give you more detail.
| | 06:30 | And in turn, as you increase the quality,
it will give you less noise in your image.
| | 06:35 | So the optimum settings are whatever
setting you can set this at as low as
| | 06:39 | possible and still have an
acceptable amount of grain in your 3D.
| | 06:44 | The Anti-Aliasing Filter will work in
order of quality from None, being the
| | 06:50 | lowest quality to Cubic, being the highest.
| | 06:53 | Now the way this works, it's just
dealing with the edges of your type and
| | 06:57 | actually what it's doing as you
increase the quality, it's sampling more and
| | 07:03 | more pixels around the edge.
| | 07:05 | So in essence, it's kind of
blurring that edge just a little bit.
| | 07:09 | So when we click OK, it's going to take
a second to render, but we should get a
| | 07:13 | pretty decent preview.
| | 07:15 | Now if you really want to see a high-
res preview, click on this button in the
| | 07:20 | lower right corner of the comp window.
| | 07:22 | You want to change it from
Adaptive Resolution to Final Quality.
| | 07:26 | Now on this computer, it may take a
second to render because we saw at the
| | 07:30 | beginning of the course that we don't
have a supported CUDA Graphics Card.
| | 07:35 | A lot of this processing can happen on the
CUDA Graphics Card if you have a supported card.
| | 07:41 | So now that it's finished, press Shift
+Command+H to hide all of the guides
| | 07:47 | around the selected layer.
| | 07:49 | And as you can see, upping the
render settings has definitely given us a
| | 07:53 | much higher quality.
| | 07:54 | Now that being said, I want to draw
your attention to the lower right corner
| | 07:58 | of your Comp Viewer.
| | 07:59 | This button right here is
the Fast Preview button.
| | 08:02 | If you click and hold, notice we could
change the resolution of what we're looking at.
| | 08:07 | When you're working with 3D, you
probably want to set this to Draft,
| | 08:12 | specifically if you're trying to animate.
| | 08:14 | That way you can get much better
playback because it lowers the quality of the
| | 08:19 | resolution of the renderer.
| | 08:21 | Now obviously, if you want to see what
you've have created, remember to come
| | 08:24 | back down here and then change it back
to off, so when you're finished you can
| | 08:28 | see exactly what you've created.
| | 08:31 | Now like I said, to really polish your
3D text, you'll want to go ahead and get
| | 08:36 | into the adding lights and
continue tweaking your Material Options.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adding and animating type on a path| 00:00 | Animating text on a path will give you
the ultimate control when you're trying
| | 00:04 | to fly your text around on a screen.
| | 00:07 | To get started with our animation,
let's look at what we've got.
| | 00:10 | layer 1 we have a Text layer, and layer
2, if we double-click on it you can see
| | 00:15 | it's a pre-comp of our Illustrator logo.
| | 00:18 | So let's close that comp and talk
about what we're going to create.
| | 00:23 | I want these four words to fly around
the kinetEco logo in a circle, and then
| | 00:30 | we're going to have both of them scale
away from the camera so it looks like
| | 00:34 | they are just kind of fading
off into a very small place.
| | 00:39 | So to get started, we need to create our path.
| | 00:41 | I'd like to have flexibility with my
animations, and in doing that I'd like to
| | 00:46 | be able to reference my path
from any other layer at any time.
| | 00:50 | So instead of just creating my path
right on the wind solar green energy layer,
| | 00:55 | let's create a path on a layer Solid.
| | 00:59 | So if we go up under Layer, we can
choose New > Solid and just make sure it's
| | 01:04 | the comp size by clicking the button and we can
leave with this purple color, so I'll click OK.
| | 01:10 | Now, move your mouse over the Comp
Viewer and scroll to 100% magnification.
| | 01:16 | If you're not seeing this anchor
point, make sure layer 1 is selected.
| | 01:20 | Now go up to your Shape tools in the
Tool palette and make sure that we have
| | 01:24 | the Ellipse tool selected.
| | 01:26 | Place the Ellipse tool directly over the
center of this layer and then click and drag.
| | 01:32 | Now after you start dragging, hold down
Shift, and then Command at the same time.
| | 01:37 | So I'm dragging, holding Shift and
Command and this is allowing me to draw the
| | 01:41 | circle from the center point of this layer.
| | 01:44 | If we scroll on our mouse again to zoom
back out over the canvas, this is about
| | 01:48 | what I'm looking for for the mask.
| | 01:50 | To add this mask to the Text layer,
you'll just have to click on the word Mask 1
| | 01:54 | to make sure it's selected and Copy,
Command+C, and Paste, Command+V. Since
| | 02:00 | we're not using Layer 1 anymore, we can
turn its visibility off and make it shy
| | 02:05 | and enable our little shy guy there.
| | 02:08 | That way it's hidden but we can always go
back to it if we need it for any other reason.
| | 02:13 | Select Layer 2, and you can see that
the Mask that was added to Layer 2 pasted
| | 02:18 | on to the layer if we
scroll in here and move up.
| | 02:22 | You can see the anchor point is
the center point of the circle.
| | 02:26 | So when you paste a path onto a new
layer, it will paste in the same position
| | 02:31 | from your source layer.
| | 02:33 | We don't need this mask to mask anything,
so change its Mask mode from Add to None.
| | 02:38 | If we scroll back out in our comp,
here I'm just going to reposition, let's
| | 02:44 | look at what we have.
| | 02:45 | The mask is in the wrong place.
| | 02:47 | So if you press V on your keyboard
to grab the Selection tool, you can
| | 02:51 | double-click on the Mask to grab the
bounding box or create the bounding box.
| | 02:56 | If you move your mouse anywhere inside
of the bounding box, you can move the
| | 03:00 | Mask up in the composition.
| | 03:02 | I want to make sure it's centered on
the comp and I like using Title/Action
| | 03:06 | Safe as a reference.
| | 03:07 | So in the lower left corner, click on
Title/Action Safe and let's just move this
| | 03:11 | right over the center of our canvas.
| | 03:14 | Okay, if we scroll into 100%
magnification, you can use that to make sure that
| | 03:21 | you are at the center of your comp.
| | 03:24 | Press Enter on your keypad to set
that location for the Mask path.
| | 03:28 | If you open up the Mask Path options,
here you can see we can also select the
| | 03:32 | Mask Path right here.
| | 03:34 | Well this is the parameter that
we're going to use to keyframe.
| | 03:38 | Now before we start animating the Mask, we
actually need to apply the type to the Mask.
| | 03:44 | So let's go back to 50% magnification
so we can see our scene and turn off our
| | 03:49 | Title/Action Safe in the Comp Viewer.
| | 03:52 | With the Text layer selected, let's
collapse layer 2 and then open it back up
| | 03:57 | again, and open the Text options.
| | 04:00 | Under the Text options, you want to open
Path options because we now have a path.
| | 04:04 | We can go to the Path
pulldown and enable Mask 1.
| | 04:07 | Now when you have the words on the
path, notice they snap to the top of the
| | 04:12 | path, and they're upside down.
| | 04:15 | Well, the first option here is Reverse Path.
| | 04:18 | If we click off to on just by clicking
on it, you see, now it's on the outside
| | 04:23 | of the circle which is what I was looking for.
| | 04:25 | Why did it choose the top of the path?
| | 04:27 | Well if we scroll down, the parameter
that we want to adjust is this first margin.
| | 04:33 | So click and drag on that parameter
so you can see a preview as to what the
| | 04:38 | words will be doing.
| | 04:39 | Notice as I move, if we scroll in
here you can see this control vertice has
| | 04:45 | a circle around it.
| | 04:46 | None of the other ones do.
| | 04:48 | That's letting me know
where the start of the path is.
| | 04:51 | So when I Reverse Path, it literally
moved from one side of the path to the
| | 04:55 | other side of the path but it was
also referencing the start point.
| | 05:00 | Now to create our animation, we have to
animate the path and we have to animate
| | 05:04 | the type moving around the path.
| | 05:06 | So two separate parameters and that
also gives you a lot more control.
| | 05:11 | Now before we start animating I just
want to show you some of the other options
| | 05:15 | with the Path Options.
| | 05:17 | Perpendicular To Path; if we click on
that, notice that will make the words
| | 05:21 | literally perpendicular to the path as
opposed to each individual character.
| | 05:26 | Force Alignment; here let me scroll out
here, we'll stretch all the letters out so
| | 05:30 | it's around the entire path,
obviously we don't want that.
| | 05:34 | And then First Margin just allows
you to work with the first margin.
| | 05:38 | And if we had a lot of type that went
all the way around, we could click and
| | 05:42 | drag and adjust the end
margin and see something.
| | 05:45 | But again, since we only have a
little bit of type, you don't have to
| | 05:48 | worry about that option.
| | 05:50 | So I'm going to reset that to 0.
| | 05:52 | Now to start our animation with Layer 2
selected, let's press M to open up our Mask.
| | 05:59 | This is where I want the
circle to end in terms of its size.
| | 06:02 | So let's start by adding a second keyframe.
| | 06:05 | So move your current-time
indicator down to about 2 seconds and add a
| | 06:09 | keyframe for the Mask Path.
| | 06:11 | Now if you press Home, that'll move
your current-time indicator to the start
| | 06:16 | and if we scroll out here with our
mouse over the Comp Viewer, you can press
| | 06:21 | Command+T and open up this bounding box.
| | 06:25 | Now the only reason I opened this bounding
box is because we already had Mask 1 selected.
| | 06:30 | If it wasn't selected we would
have just grabbed the Text tool.
| | 06:32 | So to add another keyframe, all you
have to do is click on one of the corners
| | 06:38 | and you guessed it, if we want it to go
around the center point, we have to hold
| | 06:42 | Shift+Command on the Mac or Ctrl on the PC.
| | 06:45 | So let's click and drag until the
path is way outside of our Comp Viewer.
| | 06:50 | Now if we scrub in the timeline, here
you can see, okay, the path is animated,
| | 06:55 | that's perfect, now we just need
to animate the type along that path.
| | 06:59 | So let's collapse Layer 2, go to the
Text section and then under Path Options we
| | 07:05 | will keyframe the first margin.
| | 07:07 | So move your current-time
indicator to the start of your comp, add a
| | 07:12 | keyframe, press End.
| | 07:13 | And then I like to click
and drag on the parameter.
| | 07:17 | That way as I drag, I can see exactly
how many times I'm going around the circle.
| | 07:23 | So I want to drag until I get about
three times around the circle. Perfect!
| | 07:28 | If we scroll through here and load up
a RAM Preview, you can see that we've
| | 07:33 | got our Type animated.
| | 07:37 | Now the only thing we have
left to do is scale down the logo.
| | 07:41 | So let's go collapse Layer 2, select
Layer 3, press Home, and we'll start with a
| | 07:48 | logo with this size.
| | 07:50 | So to automatically add a keyframe to
the scale, instead of just pressing S, if
| | 07:54 | you hold down Alt on the PC or Option
on the Mac and then press S, this will
| | 07:59 | automatically add a keyframe for the scale.
| | 08:02 | If we move down to 2 seconds, which is
where the keyframe was on Layer 2, you
| | 08:07 | could also select Layer 2 and press U,
just so you have a reference, we can
| | 08:13 | scale our logo down.
| | 08:14 | So select Layer 3 and click and
drag to adjust the scale down.
| | 08:20 | Now we can load up a RAM Preview and
you can see our Type flies down and we
| | 08:26 | have our Circle Type spinning around.
| | 08:28 | Now if you're one of those
overachievers who wants to keep pushing this
| | 08:31 | animation, I suggest you use
parenting or the pick whip.
| | 08:35 | Now if you haven't already checked
out the video on that, go back to the
| | 08:38 | Animation 101 chapter and check it out.
| | 08:41 | Now let's see how to
animate shapes and shape layers.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Animating shape layers| 00:00 | Animating shapes inside of After
Effects gives you added flexibility because of
| | 00:04 | the extra parameters that you can
animate while still keeping the shape vector.
| | 00:09 | I like to create a lot of shapes
inside of After Effects starting with
| | 00:12 | shape layers, but since they are
vector, you can actually import your
| | 00:16 | shapes from Illustrator.
| | 00:18 | So in this example, I'm going to show
you how we can bring an Illustrator file
| | 00:22 | and actually convert it to
shapes and then animate it.
| | 00:26 | So we're going to start inside of
Illustrator, and from inside Illustrator, I'm
| | 00:30 | just going to go to File, and choose
Open, and if you navigate in your exercise
| | 00:35 | files to your Footage folder, and
Illustrator, the first file I want you to
| | 00:41 | open is kineteco_01.
| | 00:44 | Go ahead and open that.
| | 00:46 | I'm using the same Spacebar command,
and left-clicking to drag this over.
| | 00:50 | Now since this isn't an Illustrator
course, I'm not going to go way in-depth
| | 00:54 | about the files, but I do want to
point out one thing that I think will help
| | 00:57 | speed up your workflow.
| | 00:59 | When you're dealing with complicated
shapes like this circle here, what you want
| | 01:03 | to do is go look at that
layer in the Layers panel.
| | 01:07 | Now I'm just going to click this
button over here in the interface to pop up
| | 01:10 | my layers, and when we select one of these
shapes, you can see whether it's yellow or blue;
| | 01:16 | when you open the triangle for that
layer, it has paths underneath it.
| | 01:21 | Now this is a complex shape, but
since each path is on its own layer, one of
| | 01:26 | the things I like to do before I bring
it into Illustrator is actually create
| | 01:31 | one Compound Path from this.
| | 01:33 | So to create a Compound Path, if you
have something like this within your
| | 01:37 | Illustrator files, you can select the
layer, and click on the Selection Target
| | 01:43 | over here on the right, and then go up
under Object, and choose Compound Path > Make.
| | 01:50 | This Compound Path exists on its own layer.
| | 01:54 | Now since I don't want to import the
entire document, what I would do is click
| | 01:59 | on the target, again making sure the
layer is selected, and then go up under
| | 02:02 | Edit > Copy, and then go to
File > New, and then under the Profile,
| | 02:09 | choose one of the video files, and here,
we'll choose our DVCPRO HD 720, click
| | 02:15 | OK, and then I can go Edit > Paste.
| | 02:19 | Now since this is on its own layer
and it's a Compound Path, I can save this
| | 02:24 | and import it into After Effects.
| | 02:27 | Just because I like to have my layers
a little larger, I am going to click on
| | 02:31 | the corner, Shift and Option.
| | 02:33 | As I drag out, notice the
same sort of key command.
| | 02:38 | Instead of Shift+Command in After
Effects and Illustrator, it's Shift+Option.
| | 02:43 | Now with this scaled up, I can save
it and then jump back into Illustrator.
| | 02:47 | So let me go ahead and save
this and I'll call it Shape 2.
| | 02:55 | I'm just saving it in my Illustrator
folder, in my exercise files, under Footage.
| | 03:01 | Okay, so save.
| | 03:02 | For the Illustrator Options, we
can just go ahead and click Save with
| | 03:06 | the default settings.
| | 03:08 | Now let's jump in to After Effects, and
double-click in your Project panel to import.
| | 03:14 | If you navigate to the Illustrator
folder, we can choose Shape 2 and just
| | 03:19 | import it as Footage.
| | 03:21 | When I click Open, the shape is brought in.
| | 03:24 | If I double-click, it will open up the
shape in a Layer Viewer, there we go!
| | 03:30 | And if I want to actually create a
composition out of this, I can just drag it
| | 03:35 | and drop it right to the Comp button
in the bottom of the Project panel.
| | 03:39 | Since I used one of the video Presets
in Illustrator, when I brought it in, it
| | 03:44 | already had the proper
dimensions to create something for video.
| | 03:48 | This is an Illustrator
file, so it is vector-based.
| | 03:51 | If you press S to open up the scale
and scale up, notice you probably have to
| | 03:56 | click continuously Rasterize to
make sure that the edges stay sharp.
| | 04:01 | Well this is all well and good, but if
you open up the parameters to animate,
| | 04:05 | notice I can animate all the same
things I could animate with any other shape.
| | 04:10 | So what's going to make this a little more
interesting is to turn this into a shape layer.
| | 04:15 | I'm just going to undo my scale
adjustment just by pressing Command+Z twice, and
| | 04:20 | with my Illustrator layer selected, you
can go up to the Layer menu and choose
| | 04:25 | Create Shapes from Vector Layer.
| | 04:28 | When you do this, now the Illustrator
file will be converted to a shape layer.
| | 04:33 | Notice it also turned off
the visibility of Layer 2.
| | 04:36 | So just to keep things tidy, let's
make Layer 2 shy, and then enable our shy
| | 04:41 | guy in the top of the layer timeline.
| | 04:43 | Okay, now we can focus just on our shape.
| | 04:47 | What I want to do is make this spin,
and then distort it so it looks kind of
| | 04:52 | like a spinning beach ball, and then
we can actually change the color as
| | 04:55 | it's spinning as well.
| | 04:57 | So let's open up Layer 1
and open up the Contents.
| | 05:01 | Notice we have one group.
| | 05:03 | If we expand that group, you can see I
still have my four paths, and underneath
| | 05:08 | that, they're all merged together to
create one graphic, and under the Fill, if
| | 05:15 | you expand that, this is
where I can set my color.
| | 05:18 | So let's set some keyframes for our color.
| | 05:21 | I'm just going to click the stopwatch at
the start, and then move down a second,
| | 05:25 | and choose a different color by clicking
in the drop well and just moving my Hue
| | 05:30 | here by clicking on the Hue slider.
| | 05:31 | Now when I click OK, it's a different color.
| | 05:34 | Let's move down to two seconds,
and adjust. You get the idea.
| | 05:41 | Keep doing this, and adjusting the
color all the way down the timeline,
| | 05:46 | roughly one second a piece.
| | 05:49 | Now to make the last color the same as
the first color, I'm just going to copy
| | 05:53 | that keyframe by drawing a lasso
around it, Command+C and Command+V.
| | 05:59 | Now it's going to spin around in
all of the colors. That's great!
| | 06:03 | But I want to rotate this.
| | 06:05 | Well if we collapse the Fill Option,
notice we have Transform Options just
| | 06:10 | for this one group.
| | 06:11 | So you can have multiple shapes within
a shape layer, and you can animate each
| | 06:16 | individual shape separately.
| | 06:18 | So notice, for group 1, I have my
own set of options for this group.
| | 06:24 | So let's expand the options for group 1,
and if we click and drag on Rotation,
| | 06:29 | notice it's spinning,
and that looks pretty cool.
| | 06:32 | So let's add two keyframes.
| | 06:35 | Let's set our first parameter for
Rotation at 0 and click the stopwatch, press
| | 06:41 | End to jump your current-time indicator
all the way to the end of your comp, and
| | 06:45 | let's create 5 rotations.
| | 06:48 | So click in the first number
well, change it to 5, press Enter.
| | 06:51 | Now if we press Home, we can load up
a RAM Preview by pressing 0 and this is
| | 06:57 | looking pretty cool, but let's take it
over the top by adding some distortion.
| | 07:02 | So while I can animate certain
parameters within the Transform Option, since
| | 07:06 | it is a shape layer, I can always go
back up to the top of the contents, and
| | 07:10 | click the Add button.
| | 07:12 | I can add one of these other
things that we could keyframe.
| | 07:16 | So I want to add some Twist.
| | 07:18 | When we add Twist, notice it bends the
edges of the shape a little bit, and I
| | 07:23 | want to scrub in my timeline, so I
can see if it's bending in the right
| | 07:26 | direction and it looks like it is.
| | 07:29 | So let's move our current-time
indicator to the start of the timeline, open
| | 07:33 | up our Twist options, reset the angle to 0,
and click the stopwatch to add a keyframe.
| | 07:39 | Now we can press End, moving our
current-time indicator to the end, and let's
| | 07:44 | change the angle to 270.
| | 07:47 | Now if we deselect the layer, there we
go, just click in the gray area and load
| | 07:52 | up a RAM Preview by pressing 0 on our keyboard.
| | 07:55 | You can see we've
animated our vector shape layer.
| | 07:58 | We've taken advantage of some of the
different animations options by adding the
| | 08:02 | Twist, and definitely learned how to
convert an Illustrator shape into a shape
| | 08:08 | layer in After Effects.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
9. Video in DepthCreating stylized video| 00:00 | In this video, we're going to
stylize some of our footage.
| | 00:04 | We're actually going to make it look
kind of sketchy, not in a bad way but
| | 00:08 | actually a good way.
| | 00:09 | Now to get started, let's make sure
we have our Sketchy project open, so
| | 00:14 | double-click your Sketchy
comp in the Project panel.
| | 00:17 | And if we select Layer 1, most of the
time when you apply effects, you just
| | 00:23 | select the layer and go up
under Effect, then apply the effect.
| | 00:26 | But one of the tips I can recommend,
especially if you're not sure exactly what
| | 00:30 | piece of footage you're going to be
using, is to actually use an Adjustment layer
| | 00:35 | instead of applying the
effects directly to your video layer.
| | 00:38 | So let's start by going up under
Layer, and choose New > Adjustment Layer.
| | 00:43 | Now with the Adjustment layer selected,
if you know you're going to create
| | 00:47 | something stylized, it's always a good
idea to just do your due-diligence and go
| | 00:53 | up under the Animation menu, and browse
some of the presets because chances are,
| | 00:58 | there's probably a preset that's
pretty close that you could modify.
| | 01:01 | Now let's go in the Image-Creative
folder, and within here, if it takes a
| | 01:05 | second to load, don't panic, it will load.
| | 01:08 | But you could scroll through and
browse some of the different options.
| | 01:13 | Notice when you select the file,
it pops up over in the preview on
| | 01:16 | the right-hand side.
| | 01:17 | Now if it were animated, you
would see a previewed animation.
| | 01:21 | Now as I click up to Bloom or Colorize,
you can see there really isn't anything
| | 01:26 | that looks particularly sketchy.
| | 01:29 | So I'm just going to the Command+Tab
and jump back into my After Effects.
| | 01:34 | So from within After Effects,
let's start by choosing a base effect.
| | 01:40 | So with the Adjustment layer selected,
go up under Effect, and I know I want to
| | 01:45 | stylize my footage, so let's start
by looking in the Stylize section;
| | 01:49 | kind of makes sense, right?
| | 01:51 | Well if we browse through here, we
can look, and sure enough, there is
| | 01:55 | one called Find Edges.
| | 01:57 | So let's see what that
looks like by choosing it.
| | 02:00 | And yes, I've created
something that looks kind of sketchy.
| | 02:04 | If we scrub through the timeline here,
let's see exactly what this is looking like.
| | 02:09 | And while this looks pretty cool,
when we get towards the end, notice as we
| | 02:13 | look in the top of our comp window, you can see
some of the sketch lines are different colors.
| | 02:19 | So I like this but I want
them to be black and white.
| | 02:22 | So let's go back up under Effect, and
go to Color Correction because we're
| | 02:26 | trying to change the colors, and since
I want it to be black and white, let's
| | 02:30 | actually go to the Black & White effect.
| | 02:33 | Now when we apply that,
we have an order of effects.
| | 02:36 | So we have Find Edges first
and then Black & White next.
| | 02:40 | Now if we toggle Black & White on and
off by clicking this FX button in the
| | 02:45 | Effects Control panel, make
note of which lines are what color.
| | 02:50 | So notice, this greenish color or
whatever is kind of cyan actually.
| | 02:54 | So when we turn Black & White back on,
I could adjust the Cyan setting down to
| | 03:00 | just bold up that color a little bit.
| | 03:03 | Now I could sit here and keep tweaking,
but I think this is pretty decent for now.
| | 03:08 | Now as we scrub through, I am
slightly bothered by the fact that these
| | 03:12 | edges are so jagged.
| | 03:14 | Now just to make sure that they're
jagged, I always recommend scrolling to 100%
| | 03:18 | magnification, and full resolution, so
you can check out what you're looking at.
| | 03:24 | And it's true, I just don't
like how jagged these lines are.
| | 03:27 | So I'm going to go up
under Effect, and add one more.
| | 03:31 | If we go to Blur & Sharpen,
we can add the Fast Blur.
| | 03:34 | It's just a quick way to add a blur
without having to bog down your system
| | 03:38 | with the render time.
| | 03:39 | So I'm going to bring my
Blurriness just a tiny bit up.
| | 03:42 | Here we can set it around 2.0.
| | 03:44 | Now when we scroll back out and scrub
through, you can kind of see it's just
| | 03:49 | added a nice softness to the layer.
| | 03:51 | Now I like the sketch look, but
I don't want it to be on white.
| | 03:55 | I do want it to be applied to the video somehow.
| | 03:58 | So in order to mix our effects with our
video, we can now adjust the blend mode
| | 04:04 | of the Adjustment layer.
| | 04:05 | So if your switches and modes aren't up,
just right-click anywhere in the gray
| | 04:09 | area and make sure that you
have your modes enabled. Okay.
| | 04:15 | Now let's change the mode from
Layer 1, from Normal to Multiply.
| | 04:20 | When you choose Multiply, any
white pixels will get knocked out.
| | 04:23 | Now if you look here, you might get a
little confused because this looks white.
| | 04:27 | Well if we turn off the Visibility of
our Adjustment layer, you can see the
| | 04:31 | original source as bright
white as well. So, don't panic.
| | 04:35 | Everything is working just perfectly.
| | 04:37 | Now an interesting thing is going on here.
| | 04:39 | We have effects that are
applied to our Adjustment layer.
| | 04:42 | But now, since we have a blend mode
applied, our background layer is also a
| | 04:48 | part of this treatment.
| | 04:50 | Now what I want to do is add a
slight glow to everything in the scene.
| | 04:54 | Let's see what happens if we apply the
glow directly to the Adjustment layer.
| | 04:58 | If you go up to the Effect panel,
and go to Stylize, we can choose Glow.
| | 05:03 | Now the default settings of Glow seem to be
relatively okay, but honestly, how can you tell?
| | 05:10 | You can't really see what's going on here.
| | 05:12 | So let's actually select the Glow effect
in the Effects control and press Delete.
| | 05:19 | Now let's add an Adjustment layer.
| | 05:22 | Let's go up to Layer > New > Adjustment Layer.
| | 05:24 | The reason I want to add an Adjustment
layer is because I want this effect to be
| | 05:29 | applied to both my effects in the
Adjustment layer, and the background color
| | 05:34 | that it's mixing with.
| | 05:35 | Now we can go up under Effect, and
since I just applied the glow, I can just go
| | 05:40 | right here to Glow to apply it.
| | 05:42 | The last effect you applied is always
going to be the first option up here
| | 05:46 | in your Effects panel.
| | 05:47 | Now you can see I'm getting some
glow out on the Color Channels as well as
| | 05:52 | my stylized sketch.
| | 05:54 | Now notice in my Glow settings, I
could adjust my Glow based on the Alpha
| | 05:58 | or the Color Channels.
| | 06:00 | I do want to do the Color Channel,
and if we crank the Threshold down, it's
| | 06:04 | going to intensify the glow, and if we
bring it up, it's going to soften the glow.
| | 06:08 | So let's bring it up to around 65,
and we could adjust the radius out if we
| | 06:13 | really want to soften it or
bring it down for lesser glow.
| | 06:18 | The intensity is just that, just how
intense of a glow you're going to have.
| | 06:22 | So let's leave that at 1, and you can
definitely continue to click through the
| | 06:27 | different options and further explore Glow.
| | 06:29 | But I hope you can see how making
adjustments to stylizing your video with
| | 06:34 | Adjustment layers actually creates
something a little bit more versatile and
| | 06:38 | flexible because you not only have
control within the effects themselves, but
| | 06:43 | also between the layers and the blend modes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Retiming video footage| 00:00 | Have you ever watched one of those
Hollywood movies where you see somebody
| | 00:03 | running down the street and then
it goes into super slow motion?
| | 00:07 | Well really what's happening with
that, they were originally shot with a
| | 00:11 | high frame rate camera.
| | 00:13 | So super slow motion was created
because, let's say, the footage was shot at 200
| | 00:19 | frames a second, and then they
played it back at 30 frames a second.
| | 00:23 | So you get a much slower motion.
| | 00:27 | I think there are plenty of us that get
lots of footage that wasn't shot with a
| | 00:31 | high speed camera, but people still
want to slow it down and speed it up.
| | 00:35 | And usually, as a rule of thumb, I like
to think, okay, I don't want to slow my
| | 00:40 | footage down slower than, 30%
lower than it was originally shot.
| | 00:46 | And that's just a rule of thumb,
so I can create smooth projects.
| | 00:51 | But before you can even deal with
any of that, you need to have a base
| | 00:54 | understanding of what the
tools are, and how they function.
| | 00:58 | So let's start by looking at our project here.
| | 01:01 | If we look in the timeline, we have an
MPEG-4 file and if we select it up in our
| | 01:06 | Project panel, you can see it
was shot at 23.976 frames a second.
| | 01:12 | Now it exists in a composition
that is also 23.976 frames a second.
| | 01:18 | So when we make changes, I don't want
to slow this down much less than maybe 17
| | 01:24 | or 18 frames a second.
| | 01:25 | Let's look at how re-timing actually works.
| | 01:29 | When you select the layer in After
Effects, there are time controls you can
| | 01:35 | easily get to by going up to the Layer menu.
| | 01:37 | Now we need to have the layer
selected in the timeline. There we go.
| | 01:41 | So now when we go to the
Layer menu, we can go to Time.
| | 01:45 | Now within Time, there's
an option for Time Remapping.
| | 01:48 | But if you're just very quickly
trying to play footage backwards, you can
| | 01:53 | enable Time-Reverse Layer.
| | 01:55 | Now let's see what happens with this.
| | 01:57 | I'm going to scrub my playhead to
about 2 seconds and let's have this footage
| | 02:03 | play to here and then play
backwards, and then play forwards again.
| | 02:08 | So if I selected this layer, and went
up under Edit, I could Split it, which now
| | 02:14 | it exists on two different layers, and
I'm doing this because I want this top
| | 02:17 | layer currently to play backwards.
| | 02:19 | So let's rename that Reverse.
| | 02:21 | So we'll select that, and press Return
on our keyboards and say Reverse. Okay.
| | 02:27 | Now move your current-time indicator down to
around 4 seconds, and split the layer again.
| | 02:33 | The key command to split the layer is Command
+Shift+D or Ctrl+Shift+D if you're on a PC.
| | 02:40 | Now let's rename layer 1, Turbines.
| | 02:45 | I'm just leaving it the same basic
name as 3 because we're not adjusting the
| | 02:49 | time for that layer.
| | 02:51 | When you reverse a layer,
it's literally going to reverse.
| | 02:54 | So see this light gray area on the
outside of what we've actually chosen to show.
| | 03:01 | This is the area that got trimmed out.
| | 03:03 | Well look at what happens when we
go up under Layer, and go to Time, and
| | 03:07 | choose Time-Reverse Layer.
| | 03:11 | It's playing backwards and it literally
flipped the entire layer around, but it
| | 03:15 | knows we want to show the specific frames.
| | 03:18 | So Now this front section that
used to be over here is now over here.
| | 03:23 | You can see it's going to play in
reverse because of these red lines.
| | 03:27 | If we load up a RAM Preview, watch what happens.
| | 03:32 | It's going to play, and then jump
backwards and then jump forwards again.
| | 03:37 | That's because these frames
actually shifted around in the timeline.
| | 03:42 | So let's select Layer 1 and duplicate it,
so we have a clean layer to start with.
| | 03:48 | I want to solo this layer, and then I'm
going to bring its start point back to
| | 03:52 | the start of the timeline by
clicking and dragging on it.
| | 03:55 | In here, I want to show you how we can
create a variable time remapping where
| | 03:59 | it changes over time.
| | 04:01 | In order to do that, let's go up to
Layer > Time, and go to Enable Time Remapping.
| | 04:09 | Notice when Time Remapping is enabled, I
have a keyframe at the beginning and at
| | 04:13 | the end of my footage.
| | 04:16 | Now this is better illustrated when
we select Time Remap in the timeline and
| | 04:21 | then open up our Key Frame Editor.
| | 04:24 | In here, you can see a line that
represents how the footage plays.
| | 04:30 | As long as this line is at an angle
going upwards, it's going to be playing in a
| | 04:35 | "forwards" direction.
| | 04:38 | Anytime that it's flat, it
will be stopped or paused.
| | 04:41 | So let's get started by moving our
current-time indicator to 2 seconds,
| | 04:47 | and going over to the left side of
the timeline to add a keyframe here
| | 04:51 | with the Keyframe Navigator.
| | 04:52 | Go ahead and click right there, perfect!
| | 04:55 | And now let's move to 4
seconds and add another keyframe.
| | 05:00 | Now we haven't done any Time
Remapping yet, because we haven't made any
| | 05:04 | adjustments to these keyframes.
| | 05:06 | Select the second keyframe you
added and drag it down in the timeline.
| | 05:12 | You should notice snapping, if it's
not snapping you want to toggle this
| | 05:16 | magnetic button here.
| | 05:20 | So with the magnet, it snaps.
| | 05:23 | It's perfectly flat
compared to the other keyframe.
| | 05:26 | If I drag that up and down, it will be flat.
| | 05:29 | So what's going to happen when we preview this?
| | 05:32 | It will play forwards in normal time at
the front section, and then it's going
| | 05:37 | to pause, and then play
back a little bit faster.
| | 05:40 | See how this angle is steeper back here?
| | 05:43 | That's letting me know it has to play faster.
| | 05:45 | So there, it stopped, and then there,
it picked up again, but it's playing at a
| | 05:51 | faster rate, and we stop playback.
| | 05:54 | If you want to round this out, what you
can do is right-click on the layer, go
| | 05:59 | to your Keyframe
Assistant, and choose Easy Ease.
| | 06:02 | That will give you your handles.
| | 06:04 | So let's do that for the next keyframe.
| | 06:06 | Right-click on the keyframe >
Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease.
| | 06:10 | Notice how smooth it made the second handle.
| | 06:14 | That's just because it's trying to
ease it back into that higher velocity.
| | 06:18 | So if we press Home and load up a RAM
Preview again, you should notice it easing
| | 06:23 | in, pausing, and then easing
back out in terms of the motion.
| | 06:28 | It may take a second to load on your system.
| | 06:31 | Don't worry, it will get there. All right,
| | 06:34 | I'm going to press the Spacebar so I can
watch my RAM Preview for what's cached so far.
| | 06:38 | Now as you can see, I'm getting some
stuttering that's happening and that's
| | 06:43 | just because it's playing
at such a low frame rate.
| | 06:46 | Let me stop playback one more time.
| | 06:48 | Just so you can see what it looks like,
let's click on the second keyframe and
| | 06:52 | drag it all the way down.
| | 06:55 | Now notice, when I hover my mouse
over the keyframe, it's telling me I'm at
| | 06:59 | 4 seconds, but the Time Remap is saying
play the frame from 0 seconds at this point.
| | 07:06 | If I hover over here, it's saying,
play frame 2 seconds at 2 seconds.
| | 07:11 | So let's load up another RAM Preview,
and you'll see it speed up, slow down,
| | 07:17 | and speed up again.
| | 07:19 | (video playing)
| | 07:26 | Okay, so now you've seen what it
looks like when it speeds up,
| | 07:30 | goes in reverse, and then goes back.
| | 07:32 | Just understand when you adjust your
keyframes forwards or down the timeline,
| | 07:38 | you will be changing how fast the frame
rate changes because the curve will have
| | 07:44 | to change accordingly.
| | 07:47 | If you wanted to smooth out an
individual section, you could draw a lasso around
| | 07:51 | the keyframes that you're trying to
adjust, and you'll get this bounding box
| | 07:54 | that pops up if you have this key active.
| | 07:58 | This bounding box will allow you to drag
the keyframes out in proportion to each other.
| | 08:04 | Just to understand when that smoothes out,
notice how sharp this angle is. Okay,
| | 08:10 | so that brings me to the last thing we're
going to talk about with time remapping.
| | 08:14 | Let's close our Keyframe Editor, go up
under Layer > Frame Blending.
| | 08:20 | In here, you have Frame Blending options.
| | 08:23 | So as you remap your footage,
sometimes you'll notice that it stutters or it
| | 08:29 | looks a little ragged.
| | 08:31 | That's because Frame Blending is off.
| | 08:33 | Frame Mix is the next step up from
being off, where it mixes frames by adding or
| | 08:39 | creating new frames, and then, Pixel
Motion will not only add and create frames,
| | 08:44 | but it will actually analyze each
individual pixel between the frames to create
| | 08:49 | the smoothest motion possible.
| | 08:51 | Just understand when you choose this, it's
going to add a lot more time to your render time.
| | 08:56 | But I can tell you the
rewards are well worth the wait.
| | 09:00 | Now you understand how time remapping
works directly on the layer, there's one
| | 09:05 | other area where there's time remapping
you should check out in After Effects,
| | 09:09 | and that's in the Effects area.
| | 09:11 | So go to the Effects > Time, and
then you can see there's a whole host of
| | 09:16 | different effects that you can apply
to layers to make time adjustments.
| | 09:21 | If you would like to explore time
remapping and time adjustments more in
| | 09:24 | depth, you should check out another title on
our library called After Effects Apprentice 10:
| | 09:30 | Time Games.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Retouching with the Rubber Stamp tool| 00:00 | As we scrub through the project, you
can see I've got some issues here that I
| | 00:05 | could definitely use the
Clone Stamp tool to fix.
| | 00:09 | For example, this hair that appears to be
on the lens and this dirt that's up here;
| | 00:13 | notice as I scrub when the
turbine goes by, it overlaps.
| | 00:18 | That could be problematic.
| | 00:19 | But we can fix it relatively
easily with the Clone Stamp tool.
| | 00:24 | Now the Clone Stamp tool is driven
by the Paint Engine in After Effects.
| | 00:28 | So the way that works, you have to double-
click the layer to open up the Layer panel.
| | 00:33 | So if we double-click, here we have a
Layer panel window, and in here, we could
| | 00:38 | paint with our Clone Stamp tool.
| | 00:40 | But since this is a paint function, if
you go to the Workspace pulldown, notice
| | 00:45 | there is a Paint option.
| | 00:47 | So let's change our workspace to Paint.
| | 00:50 | Now that we're in Paint, you can see on
the left, we have the Composition Viewer
| | 00:54 | and then right here, we have the Layer panel.
| | 00:58 | So within the Layer panel itself, we can
actually paint once we grab our Clone tool.
| | 01:04 | So go up to the Clone Stamp tool
in your Tool palette and select it.
| | 01:09 | Let's look over to the right here, and
notice we have some options for the paint.
| | 01:15 | Right here, 100% Opacity, that means
as we paint, it will be 100% opaque.
| | 01:21 | This is the next thing you
need to pay attention to.
| | 01:23 | If you click on that, notice
the Brushes panel becomes active.
| | 01:27 | So let's make that a little more dominant.
| | 01:29 | You can see in the Brushes panel, you
can make the diameter of the brush smaller
| | 01:33 | or larger depending upon
what you're going to paint.
| | 01:36 | So I'm going to click and drag on the
diameter, and set it up to around 27.
| | 01:42 | Now these other options are kind of
fun but they're pretty self-explanatory.
| | 01:46 | Let's just jump down to the Hardness one.
| | 01:48 | If you click and drag on Hardness, notice
the edges of the brush will get more sharp.
| | 01:53 | Well when you're dealing with painting
something like a sky that has variable
| | 01:58 | colors of blue, you don't
want a hard-edged brush.
| | 02:01 | So let's change the Hardness down to 0.
| | 02:04 | Now Spacing deals with painting over a
long area and we're not going to have to
| | 02:08 | worry about that, so we'll
just leave the Spacing set at 25.
| | 02:12 | Now let's move the Brushes panel back
down so we can see some of our Clone Options.
| | 02:18 | I want you to note that we're painting
on a Normal blend mode, and we are going
| | 02:22 | to paint on all the channels; the Red,
the Green, the Blue, and the Alpha.
| | 02:26 | You can paint just on RGB or Alpha,
and the Duration is set to Constant.
| | 02:32 | You'll understand what that
means as soon as we get started.
| | 02:34 | So let's get started painting.
| | 02:37 | When you paint, you want your
Magnification to be set at 100%.
| | 02:41 | So go to the lower-left corner of
the Layer Viewer, change it to 100%, and
| | 02:46 | I'm going to press the Spacebar, and click
and drag to get back over to the left side here.
| | 02:51 | The way the Clone Stamp tool works, you
need to press Option to choose where the
| | 02:56 | pixels are being sampled from.
| | 02:58 | So hold Option and click, and then
let go of Option and now when I start
| | 03:03 | painting, you'll see a Plus symbol that
shows me where I'm sampling those pixels from.
| | 03:09 | Now notice I just painted one section of this.
| | 03:12 | That's because I don't want one big
stroke going around because of all the
| | 03:17 | varying shades of blue.
| | 03:18 | So sometimes it makes
sense to do multiple strokes.
| | 03:21 | So this time, I'll sample from over here,
Option+Click, and then paint the upper portion.
| | 03:28 | On this side, I'm going to Option+
Click and just paint this last portion.
| | 03:33 | Notice in the timeline here, my current-time
indicator was set at 7 seconds 23 frames.
| | 03:40 | If I scroll through the layer, you can
see something is happening before this time.
| | 03:44 | Well let's make the layer a little
larger and I want to scroll up here and
| | 03:51 | collapse this section right here
called Clone 3. Let's collapse it.
| | 03:55 | We can collapse Clone 2 and Clone 1,
because notice, this actually determines
| | 04:01 | whether the paint stroke is really there.
| | 04:04 | What we need to do is make this
the entire length of the comp.
| | 04:09 | An easy way to do this is to select
all three Clone Stamp layers, and click
| | 04:13 | on the left edge of one of them, and bring it
all the way to the front of the composition.
| | 04:19 | I'm going to press Home to move my
current-time indicator to the start of
| | 04:23 | the composition and let's expand Clone
3 so you can see what you can do with
| | 04:29 | the Clone Stamp tool.
| | 04:31 | If I select Clone 3, here let me
bring my viewer up here a little bit more.
| | 04:35 | I'm going to press the Spacebar so
we can focus on this one brushstroke.
| | 04:39 | Now I'm going to scroll down
so we can see Clone 3. Okay.
| | 04:43 | In here, notice it's actually created a path,
and you can see that path in my Layer Viewer.
| | 04:49 | I could animate the start
or the end of that path.
| | 04:52 | So you can actually animate the stroke.
| | 04:56 | We could adjust the Diameter of the Angle,
the Hardness, all these brush options
| | 05:01 | that we had in the Brushes panel,
we could change after the fact.
| | 05:06 | So this is really, really cool.
| | 05:09 | The rest of these options are pretty
straightforward, but the one down here I
| | 05:13 | want to point out is Clone Time Shift.
| | 05:16 | This is fascinating, because you can sample
from earlier or later frames in the timeline.
| | 05:22 | For example, if I was painting a
brushstroke at 1 second, I could Option+Click,
| | 05:26 | and when I paint, I could be
sampling from 1 second earlier.
| | 05:31 | So frame 0 could be painting on
frame 1 as I'm using the Clone Stamp tool.
| | 05:37 | I think that's pretty cool.
| | 05:39 | Another thing to be aware, when you
have the Clone Strokes selected in the
| | 05:44 | timeline, if you come back up and start
painting again, that stroke will be replaced.
| | 05:50 | So it's really important that we
scroll up, and just select layer 1, or as
| | 05:56 | a matter of fact, double-click layer 1 to
make sure that the Layer panel is active.
| | 06:01 | Now we can continue painting paint-
strokes, but let's expand our Layer Viewer
| | 06:05 | here and just scrub, and you can see now
that one hair is completely gone out of
| | 06:11 | our scene, just gone.
| | 06:13 | By all means, you can feel free
to retouch some other areas as you
| | 06:17 | identify them, but let's press the
Spacebar, and drag over to the right
| | 06:23 | side of our viewer.
| | 06:25 | Up here, this is the area that I want to
show you a different technique to dealing with.
| | 06:30 | So move your current-time indicator
down to around 8 seconds one frame.
| | 06:36 | Notice the blade of our turbine
is overlapping the piece of dirt.
| | 06:40 | Here, let's expand our Paint panel again.
| | 06:44 | We can't paint with a constant duration
because it's going to paint over the blade.
| | 06:49 | See, if I use Page Up and Page Down
to step through the frames, notice that
| | 06:54 | would be problematic.
| | 06:55 | So what we need to do is go through,
and set a Duration of Single Frame.
| | 07:02 | Now with Single Frame set, you want
to paint anytime you think the blade is
| | 07:07 | getting close to our dirt.
| | 07:09 | So if we say Page Down right here,
I definitely want to paint this.
| | 07:13 | So I'm going to Option+Click right on
the blade, and then when I go to paint up
| | 07:17 | here, I'm going to paint over that area.
| | 07:22 | Now I can Option+Click and paint
here as well just to get rid of that.
| | 07:28 | Now that looks pretty good.
| | 07:29 | If we page up, you can see there's
before and there's the next frame; Page Down.
| | 07:35 | Now if we Page Down again, you could see
we still have to do some Clone Stamping.
| | 07:39 | So let's Option+Click, and fix that, and
again, I'm going to Option+Click on the
| | 07:43 | blade, and just extend it a little more.
| | 07:45 | Now that one didn't line up, so I'm going to
Command+Z to undo, and give it one more shot;
| | 07:50 | Option+Click, and okay.
| | 07:54 | Let's undo that last time, and we'll
try one last time. Okay, there we go!
| | 07:59 | So I could Option+Click and make the
paintbrush a little smaller to deal with
| | 08:04 | this one edge, but you get the idea.
| | 08:06 | You can be very precise in the paint.
| | 08:09 | So now as I Page Up and Page Down,
notice, I've got the blade going over, and
| | 08:15 | my dirt is appearing and disappearing.
| | 08:18 | What do you do about all the other frames?
| | 08:19 | I don't want to have to
repaint each one of these frames.
| | 08:24 | So what you do is move your current-time
indicator to the last time, the
| | 08:29 | turbine blade crossed the dirt.
| | 08:32 | So here, what I'm going to do is set my
Duration to Constant, and I'm going to
| | 08:38 | Option+Click, and paint this one area.
| | 08:41 | Now if we look in the timeline, here
I'm going to bring the timeline up, you
| | 08:45 | can see with the Duration set to
Constant, since my current-time indicator was
| | 08:50 | down the timeline, it's
not starting till right here.
| | 08:53 | Now let's look at this specific area.
| | 08:56 | As we move down the timeline back to
our problem area where we had the Clone
| | 09:01 | Stamp, see this constant
duration is giving me an issue.
| | 09:05 | So what I need to do is trim the out
point of this constant brushstroke.
| | 09:11 | So here, there we go.
| | 09:14 | So as you can see, even with this
constant stroke, I may have to just trim this
| | 09:19 | one extra frame, and then, paint one
more with the Single Frame retouch.
| | 09:27 | So let's Option+Click, Single Frame. Okay.
| | 09:32 | Now as we step through, you can see
it's covered and we have our constant
| | 09:39 | brushstroke beforehand, and
our individual frames afterwards.
| | 09:44 | So when you're done with your edit,
and all the different Clone Stamp
| | 09:49 | strokes, if we zoom in here, notice
you'll have ones that exist over very
| | 09:54 | short periods of time as well as the
other ones that exist over the entire
| | 10:00 | length of the composition.
| | 10:02 | So I definitely encourage you to follow
this up by going through and retouching
| | 10:08 | this one area every time the blade crosses.
| | 10:12 | I think you'll be really surprised and
pleased at how fast and powerful it is to
| | 10:17 | work with the Clone Stamp tool.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Smoothing shaky camera footage| 00:00 | If you've ever gone on location and
shot some footage, I'm sure you've realized
| | 00:05 | that on occasion when you get back,
your clients will inevitably choose the one
| | 00:09 | shot that wasn't on a tripod or had
noise or some other issue with it.
| | 00:15 | Well if you're joining me from the
last video, you may recognize this shot
| | 00:19 | as one of those shots.
| | 00:21 | If we scrub through, you can see
I have some stabilization issues.
| | 00:26 | This wasn't shot on the tripod and we also
have some dirt issues like dirt on the lens.
| | 00:32 | Now in the last video, we did try and
use the Clone Stamp tool to go through and
| | 00:37 | paint out some of those dirty areas.
| | 00:40 | So now in this video, we're
actually going to deal with the
| | 00:43 | stabilization issues.
| | 00:46 | Now as a general rule, if you're trying
to stabilize footage that already has an
| | 00:50 | effect applied to it, you should
select that layer and then go up under Layer
| | 00:54 | and choose Pre-compose.
| | 00:56 | Now I want to make sure to move all the
attributes into the new composition so
| | 01:00 | the effects that are applied are
moved into the new composition.
| | 01:04 | When I click OK, now we have a clean
comp for the Stabilize to work with.
| | 01:10 | See, now the effect in essence is
being rendered prior to this composition
| | 01:16 | because it's in the pre-composition. Okay,
| | 01:20 | so with Layer 1 selected, to apply
the Stabilize effect, you can either go to
| | 01:24 | Effect > Distort > Warp Stabilizer,
or you could just go to Animation
| | 01:31 | and choose Warp Stabilizer.
| | 01:33 | Either way is correct, and notice the
second you apply Warp Stabilizer, it will
| | 01:38 | start to analyze the image.
| | 01:41 | If you look in the Effects Control panel,
I get a status update as to how long
| | 01:45 | it's going to take for the Warp
Stabilizer to analyze all the footage.
| | 01:51 | What it does with the footage is
determined by these following switches and groups.
| | 01:56 | So let's look at Result.
| | 01:58 | The first two options, we
have Smooth Motion or No Motion.
| | 02:01 | Well if it was a shot that was supposed to
be on a tripod, you want to choose No Motion.
| | 02:06 | Now if it's a shot where you were
walking or skiing or literally moving like a
| | 02:11 | dolly shot or something, you
want to choose Smooth Motion.
| | 02:14 | Let's choose No Motion, and the Method,
let's click on that pulldown and look.
| | 02:20 | We have four options.
| | 02:22 | Position will just adjust
the position of the Stabilize.
| | 02:26 | It won't deal with any
scaling or rotation issues.
| | 02:30 | So obviously, the next one deals
with Position, Scale, and Rotation.
| | 02:34 | The Perspective option will
deal with perspective issues.
| | 02:38 | And Subspace Warp is probably what I
use literally about 90% of the time.
| | 02:43 | What this will do is deal with
position, scale, and rotation, but it will
| | 02:47 | actually warp the edges of the image
and try and recreate a very stable shot on
| | 02:54 | a pretty much pixel-by-pixel basis.
| | 02:56 | So if we let go for Subspace Warp, you
can see now since the footage has been
| | 03:00 | analyzed, it's stabilizing.
| | 03:03 | The Framing options are kind of fun.
| | 03:05 | Click on the pulldown and you can see
we could stabilize the footage only, we
| | 03:09 | could stabilize it and crop off any of
the edges, or we could stabilize it, crop
| | 03:15 | it and auto-scale, which is
what I use about 90% of the time.
| | 03:20 | Let's choose Stabilize Only
and see what it looks like.
| | 03:23 | See how we have these dark edges on the comp?
| | 03:26 | If we load up a RAM Preview, you'll
notice those edges will bounce around.
| | 03:31 | On your system it may take a second to
load up the RAM Preview, so just be patient.
| | 03:36 | Now I'm going to stop the Preview from
loading and just press the Spacebar so it
| | 03:39 | plays the frames that are loaded.
| | 03:42 | Now you can see the edges are moving
around and we have a relatively stable
| | 03:48 | turbine in the middle of the shot, and I'm
going to stop playback by pushing the Spacebar.
| | 03:53 | Let's change the Framing to
Stabilize and Crop, and you can see, now it's
| | 03:58 | cropped in on the image so we don't see
any of that waviness happening as it's
| | 04:03 | adjusting the edges.
| | 04:05 | Now like I said, 90% of the time I use
Stabilize, Crop, Auto-scale, where it'll
| | 04:11 | then apply a scale, and then under
Auto-scale, it tells you how much.
| | 04:16 | Stabilize, Synthesize Edges is
really cool because this will not only
| | 04:20 | stabilize the footage, but it will
analyze the footage and then recreate the
| | 04:25 | edges of the image using a very similar
technology to what Photoshop uses with
| | 04:32 | the Content-Aware Fill.
| | 04:33 | Now I just want to use Stabilize, Crop,
and Auto-scale, so we'll set it to that.
| | 04:39 | If we take a peek at the Advanced
section, you can see we could perform a
| | 04:44 | Detailed Analysis by just adding the
selection and then continue to refine the
| | 04:50 | footage by reducing any Rolling Shutter Ripple.
| | 04:54 | This is what happens if the shutter
rate on your camera is set at a level to
| | 04:59 | where you'll notice kind of
tearing moving though the image.
| | 05:03 | So most of the time I just leave that
for Automatic Reduction, and then when
| | 05:08 | it's finished, you can go ahead
and load up another RAM Preview.
| | 05:13 | I'll rejoin you in a second after
our Stabilizer has gone through and
| | 05:17 | analyzed this image. All right,
| | 05:20 | now the Warp Stabilizer has finished doing
what it needs to do to process our image.
| | 05:26 | Let's go ahead and load up a RAM Preview
and see what the results are. All right,
| | 05:31 | now again, I'm just going to press the
Spacebar so we can watch the first couple
| | 05:35 | of seconds that have been
cached into the Preview.
| | 05:38 | And as you can see, this
shot is a lot more stable.
| | 05:42 | So when it comes to using the Warp
Stabilizer, just remember, you need to
| | 05:46 | pre-compose any layer
that currently has effects.
| | 05:50 | So the Warp Stabilizer has "a clean piece of
footage" to start building the Stabilize on.
| | 05:56 | Then it's just a question of pulling
through the menus and deciding exactly how
| | 06:01 | you want to scale the image, crop the
image, or just how detailed you want your
| | 06:06 | stabilization to be.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
10. Project: Keying Green Screen FootageUnderstanding keying| 00:00 | In this video, we're going to
cover the basic process behind keying.
| | 00:04 | We're not going to actually do
any specific keying just yet.
| | 00:08 | It's important to understand exactly
how everything works before we start
| | 00:13 | clicking on buttons and checking things out.
| | 00:15 | So the general idea behind keying is
to take some footage that's shot on a
| | 00:21 | specific color and eliminate that color
from the background so that you can put
| | 00:26 | your talent over top of anything.
| | 00:29 | You could make them appear on
Hawaii or put them over a graphic
| | 00:31 | background, whatever you want.
| | 00:33 | Now if we look at our comp
right here, let's select Layer 1.
| | 00:38 | The first thing I want
you to notice is this mask.
| | 00:40 | Usually in the process of keying,
you'll start off by creating a garbage mask
| | 00:44 | where you can eliminate any
unwanted areas in the scene.
| | 00:48 | Now if you look on the right side
here, I can see the edge of the stage.
| | 00:52 | Based on the angle how
this was shot, that happened.
| | 00:55 | Now as long as the talent didn't cross
over that area, we could just as easily
| | 00:59 | remove that by using
what's called a garbage mask.
| | 01:03 | So this is a mask that we apply to remove any
extra information otherwise known as garbage.
| | 01:09 | Okay, now let's enable the mask by pressing
M on our keyboard with Layer 1 selected
| | 01:15 | and changing the mode to Add. Okay,
| | 01:18 | now that's part of the process, but if
we go to the Effects Controls, you can
| | 01:21 | see I've already applied an effect.
| | 01:24 | Now in After Effects, if we go to Effects,
under Keying, you can see there are a
| | 01:28 | couple of different key options.
| | 01:31 | There is one for Color Key where you can
actually key out any color that's in the background.
| | 01:36 | Now the most common colors for keying
are green screen and blue screen keying.
| | 01:42 | The most powerful keyer inside of After
Effects in my opinion is the Keylight filter.
| | 01:47 | So that's why I applied this one.
| | 01:49 | Now I've already gone through
kind of making some adjustments.
| | 01:52 | So when I select this, you can see I've got a
decent key that's pulled out of the background.
| | 01:58 | This could be an amazing key if it
weren't for one tiny, tiny thing and that
| | 02:03 | just has to do with the video codec,
which this is the perfect video to
| | 02:07 | actually talk about that.
| | 02:08 | When footage is shot for keying, there
are two things that are really important.
| | 02:13 | The first thing, the person that's
shooting the footage needs to understand the
| | 02:16 | basic principles for
shooting green screen footage.
| | 02:20 | You want to make sure the talent is not
too close to the background, otherwise,
| | 02:23 | they get too much green on their skin.
| | 02:25 | Also, the camera; you can't, or you
shouldn't, use a camera that is highly compressed.
| | 02:32 | If you noticed, the footage
that we're working with is H.264.
| | 02:36 | Now that's just compressed so it could
download easily with the exercise files.
| | 02:40 | Typically when I pull a key, I want
to use some footage like Apple ProRes or
| | 02:45 | Avid DNxHD or just a lossless codec in general.
| | 02:50 | That way I have all of the information,
so when we go to eliminate a certain
| | 02:54 | color, then we're good to go in
terms of being able to pull a nice key.
| | 02:59 | Now this is a pretty darn good key
considering we're dealing with an H.264 source.
| | 03:04 | So long story short, the process of
keying involves masks, using a filter such
| | 03:11 | as Keylight, and then of course, having
a base knowledge of the actual technical
| | 03:16 | specifications behind the
footage you're working with.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Creating a garbage mask| 00:00 | Whether you create a garbage mask at
the beginning of the process or after the
| | 00:04 | process of keying is really up to you.
| | 00:07 | I personally like to get everything
cut out of the scene that I'm not dealing
| | 00:11 | with so I know exactly
what's left to use for my key.
| | 00:16 | If you're unfamiliar with the term
garbage mask, all it is the process of
| | 00:20 | creating a mask to cut out any
extemporaneous elements that you don't want in your scene.
| | 00:26 | So if we look at our video clip
here, let's select Layer 1 and turn
| | 00:30 | the visibility off.
| | 00:31 | You can see I have a graphic
background that I want my talent over and I have
| | 00:35 | two shades of green.
| | 00:37 | This is basically the edge of the stage.
| | 00:39 | Now if we scroll out, you can see
there's a slight black line all the way
| | 00:43 | around this as well.
| | 00:45 | So we're going to create a mask that
just goes around her making sure to cut
| | 00:50 | this element out and this
black line out. All right,
| | 00:52 | so let's scroll back up here and I'm
actually going to choose Fit up to 100%
| | 00:58 | just so I can see all of
the edges of my comp. Okay,
| | 01:03 | now if you go up to the Tool panel,
let's click and hold, we can just choose
| | 01:07 | the Rectangle tool.
| | 01:09 | You could choose the Pen tool if you
want to manually click around, but I like
| | 01:12 | to start wide and then work my way in.
| | 01:15 | So with the Rectangle tool, make sure
you have Layer 1 selected, and let's click
| | 01:21 | in the upper left-hand corner
and drag down to the lower right.
| | 01:25 | Now we don't want to go this far
because we want to cut out that light green
| | 01:29 | area, the edge of the stage, and there we go!
| | 01:32 | We've created our garbage mask.
| | 01:34 | Now some people would call this finished,
but what I would do is scrub through
| | 01:39 | the timeline with your current-time
indicator and make sure that the talent
| | 01:42 | doesn't move outside the edges of your mask.
| | 01:45 | There is nothing worse than having your
talent move outside the edge and their
| | 01:49 | shoulders cut off, or something like that.
| | 01:51 | One of the things I like to do is
actually bring my mask in a little bit so I
| | 01:56 | have less to deal with in the process of keying.
| | 01:59 | Even though this is a beautiful flat,
evenly-lit key, it's kind of fun to just
| | 02:03 | pinch in the edges a little bit.
| | 02:05 | So let's select our mask on Layer 1
just by clicking on Mask 1 and go up to our
| | 02:12 | Pen tool in the Tool panel.
| | 02:14 | If you hover over one of the lines with
the Pen tool, you will get the Plus symbol.
| | 02:19 | So just click on one of the edges here, I'm
going to pinch this in right about neck height.
| | 02:24 | So here let's click here, and we'll
do the same thing on the right side,
| | 02:28 | let's just click there. Okay,
| | 02:30 | now I'm going to grab my Selection
tool, and if you Shift+Click the four top
| | 02:36 | points here just by holding down Shift and
clicking, we'll have all four points selected.
| | 02:41 | The reason I'm doing this, sometimes
it's easier to just use transform controls
| | 02:45 | to move your points.
| | 02:46 | Obviously, we could click on the points
and move them in side by side, but with
| | 02:50 | the points selected, if you press
Command+T or Ctrl+T on the PC, you can then
| | 02:56 | click on one of the edges and start to drag in.
| | 02:58 | Now as I drag in, on the Mac,
I'm going to hold Command;
| | 03:01 | on the PC it would be Ctrl, and just
sort of pinch the edges in a little bit.
| | 03:06 | Now when it's set the way you like, you
can press Return or Enter on your keyboard.
| | 03:12 | I'm just going to slide these over to
the right a little bit since the angles of
| | 03:16 | her shoulders are set up this way.
| | 03:17 | Now when I press Enter, I have my
garbage mask, and again, it's really
| | 03:21 | important to scrub through the scene and make
sure she doesn't go off the edges of the mask.
| | 03:26 | And now as I'm looking at this, I
realize, yes, we have the edges in, but
| | 03:31 | remember there is that black
line all the way around the scene?
| | 03:34 | If we move our mouse over the canvas
and scroll out here, you can see it a
| | 03:39 | little more clearly.
| | 03:40 | So let's click on the lower right
corner of the mask and then Shift+Click on
| | 03:45 | the lower left and we can just click and
drag this up just to crop this one edge off.
| | 03:52 | Now with our mask actually set, let's
deselect the mask for a quick second
| | 03:58 | and now we can select our talent and
actually just move her and the mask
| | 04:02 | slightly down off the scene.
| | 04:04 | Now when we key this, we'll go ahead
and position her properly within the
| | 04:07 | scene, but I just want to start by moving her
just a little bit off the edge of the canvas.
| | 04:13 | So in summary with garbage masks, you
want to make sure that you don't crop in
| | 04:17 | on your talent and have them get cut
off in a funny place, but also you want
| | 04:21 | to make sure to cut out any
extemporaneous elements that you won't need in
| | 04:25 | your scene.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Getting started with Keylight| 00:00 | If we look at our project, you'll notice
we have a piece of green screen footage
| | 00:05 | that already has a garbage mask
applied and a graphic background that we want
| | 00:09 | this footage to exist on top of.
| | 00:12 | So the next thing we can do is
actually generate a green screen key.
| | 00:17 | Now the effect I like to
use for this most is Keylight.
| | 00:20 | So let's select Layer 1, go up to
Effect > Keying > Keylight 1.2.
| | 00:28 | When you look at Keylight,
sometimes the first time it might seem a
| | 00:32 | little overwhelming.
| | 00:34 | I'm just going to take you through the
key areas that I use about 90% of the
| | 00:38 | time to generate successful keys.
| | 00:41 | The first thing I want you to pay
attention to is the Screen Colour.
| | 00:46 | If you click on the Eyedropper to the right of
the Color Well, you can click in the green area.
| | 00:53 | When I clicked, if you zoom up to a 100
% magnification and use the Spacebar to
| | 00:57 | move around in the scene, you
can see I have some noise here.
| | 01:01 | As I key, I will constantly zoom out
and zoom in just so I can see exactly what
| | 01:07 | I'm working with at 100%
magnification and compare it to the wide version.
| | 01:13 | Also another thing that we'll
toggle a lot is this View option.
| | 01:16 | So let's go up there right now in the
Keylight filter at the top, click on the
| | 01:21 | pulldown menu where it says Final
Result, let's go to Screen Matte.
| | 01:25 | Now Screen Matte shows me the
result of the key that I've generated.
| | 01:30 | After you sample your green color, if
you click and drag on the Gain, you can
| | 01:34 | control exactly how much of that
green you want to add or how little.
| | 01:40 | So this is looking at the variance
from the sample color, so if we crank this
| | 01:45 | up a little bit, here let's do
around 104, that's sampling more variable
| | 01:50 | versions of the green.
| | 01:52 | Now to look at the result,
let's look at Final Result.
| | 01:55 | If we scrub the Balance here, you can
see here I'm getting the dreaded color
| | 02:02 | bleed where it goes up in the
people's skin tone and things like that.
| | 02:05 | So a lot of times, I'll leave the Balance
alone until I go through these next steps.
| | 02:10 | Let's go ahead and undo, Command+Z.
So let's change the View from Final
| | 02:15 | Result to Screen Matte.
| | 02:17 | The reason I want to look directly at the
Screen Matte, that's usually the next area I go to.
| | 02:22 | So if we go down to the Screen Matte
group and open its options, the first two
| | 02:27 | options are probably the most important.
| | 02:30 | The first one, Clip Black.
| | 02:32 | If you move around the scene just by
holding the Spacebar and panning around,
| | 02:37 | you might see a little bit of noise.
| | 02:39 | It's probably hard to see,
but I can see a little bit here.
| | 02:43 | So I'm going to click and drag on the
Clip Black area, and notice if I drag it
| | 02:47 | too far, it starts clipping up into
my mask, which is not what I want.
| | 02:51 | Let's set this to a number around 4,
just a very small amount of clip.
| | 02:58 | Now Clipping White will help
deal with the white areas in here.
| | 03:02 | So let's click and drag this down, and
as I drag down, it's clipping more of the
| | 03:09 | gray pixels until it gets to the black
area, so we could set this around 83. Okay,
| | 03:17 | now let's look at the final result.
| | 03:20 | We go up to the View and change
Final Result here in the Keylight.
| | 03:25 | Now let's scroll out and look at our scene.
| | 03:29 | Let's actually load up a RAM Preview.
| | 03:30 | I'm going to press 0 on my keypad to
load that up and let's just load up a few
| | 03:35 | seconds and then press the
Spacebar so it can roll through.
| | 03:40 | Okay, this is looking relatively okay,
but if we stop playback here, notice she
| | 03:45 | looks a little washed out in
comparison to this heavily saturated background.
| | 03:50 | So a lot of times I'll end up doing color
correction to the footage after it's keyed.
| | 03:55 | If we collapse the Screen Matte area,
go down to Foreground Color Correction,
| | 04:00 | expand its options, and scroll here
and then enable our Color Correction.
| | 04:07 | When we enable that, we can make
some tweaks to our final results.
| | 04:11 | So here, I'm liking the Saturation, I
just want to up the Contrast a little bit.
| | 04:17 | So a lot of times with Keying, I find if
you just click and drag on a parameter,
| | 04:21 | you can scrub until you
get a result that you like.
| | 04:24 | Now I tend to like my images a
little punchy, so I'm going to bring the
| | 04:28 | Contrast up to around 10.
| | 04:30 | Now as I'm doing that, I'm noticing the
saturation of her skin tone is getting
| | 04:36 | a little much, a little unrealistic, so
I'll bring the Saturation down just a tiny bit.
| | 04:42 | And like I said, you can drag
with these to your individual taste.
| | 04:46 | This is what I like.
| | 04:48 | If we scroll up to 100% magnification
and kind of scrub through here in the
| | 04:52 | timeline, you can see I've
got this sort of light edge.
| | 04:57 | So it's not uncommon that I go from
the Foreground Color Correction to the
| | 05:00 | Edge Color Correction.
| | 05:02 | So let's expand the Edge Color
Correction group and enable Edge Color Correction.
| | 05:07 | Now I'm looking at this and this is a
light color, so I'm going to start by just
| | 05:11 | adjusting the brightness down.
| | 05:14 | So if you click on the Brightness and
drag it down, as I'm dragging, you may get
| | 05:19 | a downsample of the
Adaptive Resolution. That's okay.
| | 05:24 | When you let go of your mouse, it
will pop back up in terms of resolution.
| | 05:28 | Now let's toggle the results.
| | 05:29 | If I disable and re-enable, you can see
I've definitely cleaned up the edges of
| | 05:35 | my key just by using Edge Color Correction.
| | 05:39 | To recap, if I zoom out in my scene here,
you can see I have a pretty decent key.
| | 05:44 | And that was created by going through a
rather simple processing Keylight to get started.
| | 05:50 | First, you sample the color, adjust the
Screen Gain, and then jump down into the
| | 05:57 | Screen Matte area where you can click
the Black and White levels while looking
| | 06:02 | at the Screen Matte version of the view.
| | 06:05 | Once you're set with that, you can go
back to your Final Result and then make
| | 06:09 | your adjustments with your
Foreground and Edge Color Correction.
| | 06:13 | It just so happens that I did all of my
color correction within Keylight, which
| | 06:17 | is part of the reason why I love
using Keylight, but that does not mean you
| | 06:21 | can't go back up to the Effects Controls
and look at some of these other options
| | 06:25 | under Key or Matte to make adjustments
to your key or the matte we created by
| | 06:31 | pulling the key with Keylight.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
11. Integrating External ProjectsImporting Photoshop documents| 00:00 | Now we're starting off inside of
Photoshop because obviously a lot of times when
| | 00:04 | you create graphics, you'll probably
want to start the design in Photoshop.
| | 00:08 | It does a very good job of creating
graphics and I think you'll be amazed how
| | 00:12 | well integrated the communication
between After Effects and Photoshop is.
| | 00:17 | So let's look at what we have here.
| | 00:20 | First thing at the top Layer,
we have an Adjustment layer.
| | 00:23 | If I turn it's visibility on you
could see it's a black and white layer.
| | 00:26 | That's just there in case the
client wanted a black and white version.
| | 00:30 | So we'll turn that off and you
could see we have editable text.
| | 00:35 | I can see that because I have
the little Text Layer there.
| | 00:38 | And we have editable text down here.
| | 00:41 | We have a Shape Layer which
is this Black_Bar right there.
| | 00:46 | And then we have layers within layers.
| | 00:48 | So we have each group of
these three solar panels.
| | 00:54 | So we have two groups of three.
| | 00:56 | And the next layer down, these are just
painted pixels so we have the Washington panel
| | 01:03 | and then the Oregon panel,
| | 01:05 | which when we select those, notice we
have a Multiply blend mode and a Vivid
| | 01:10 | Light blend mode and
different opacities for each layer.
| | 01:15 | Now down here, we have a
layer that has a Shape and a Mask.
| | 01:20 | So if we disable the mask, I'm just
Shift+Clicking on this little thumbnail.
| | 01:24 | That will disable the mask.
| | 01:26 | You can see the full size of the shape.
| | 01:28 | Now I'll just click back on
the thumbnail to re-enable it.
| | 01:31 | We do have Layer Styles
applied to a lot of these.
| | 01:35 | A lot of Outer Glow and Stroke.
| | 01:37 | And then our bottom layer here, this
is an Illustrator File that was placed
| | 01:42 | inside of Photoshop.
| | 01:43 | So it's a Smart Object, and this
too has an effect over top of it.
| | 01:49 | Now let's jump into After
Effects so we can import this.
| | 01:52 | I'm just going to double-click
inside the Project panel and navigate in
| | 01:57 | your exercise files to the Footage
folder, in the Photoshop folder you
| | 02:02 | should find Solar_panels.psd.
| | 02:06 | Now let's not import this as
Footage, let's import this as a
| | 02:10 | Composition - Retain Layer Sizes.
| | 02:13 | That way it will be easier to animate.
| | 02:15 | Make sure Photoshop Sequence
is not selected and click Open.
| | 02:20 | Now in this next menu, we have one more
chance to change our mind if we didn't
| | 02:25 | want to choose Composition - Retain Layer Sizes.
| | 02:27 | But the big option you want to
check here is make sure that your Layer
| | 02:31 | Styles remain Editable.
| | 02:33 | For some reason if you wanted to flatten that
layer, you could merge the Layer Style down.
| | 02:40 | But since we're doing Color Overlay,
and Stroke, and Outer Glow and things like
| | 02:44 | that, those are pretty
straight forward Layer Styles.
| | 02:47 | So let's leave those editable and click OK.
| | 02:50 | We've imported our composition, you
could see we have all of our layers in our
| | 02:54 | Layer folder in the Project panel.
| | 02:56 | And if we double-click our
composition it's open here, and it is 1280x720
| | 03:02 | and it's 5 seconds because that was the
length of the last composition we had created.
| | 03:07 | Now let's look closely at our layers.
| | 03:10 | If we start at the top, we do
have a black and white layer.
| | 03:14 | And if you turn on it's visibility, sure
enough, it makes the layer black and white.
| | 03:19 | So if we go to Window and open our
Effects Controls, you can see we do have our
| | 03:23 | effect and it has remained completely editable.
| | 03:28 | Let's disable Black & White for now and
continue looking through what we have.
| | 03:32 | Well a High Population of Sunlight, okay.
| | 03:36 | Well if we open Layer 2, notice
yes, the Layer Styles came across.
| | 03:41 | We still have a Drop Shadow,
| | 03:43 | and we still have our Outer Glow, and
if we open the options for each one,
| | 03:48 | they're fully editable, Drop Shadow as well.
| | 03:52 | But if you notice the text
is not coming across as text.
| | 03:56 | Now this is one of favorite features
when I'm working with the integration
| | 04:00 | between Photoshop and After Effects.
| | 04:02 | It's the fact that you
can go up to the Layer menu,
| | 04:06 | and if it was text inside the Photoshop,
you can say Convert to Editable Text
| | 04:10 | Inside of After Effects.
| | 04:12 | Now when we choose that and we open the
layer, you can see we have text here and
| | 04:17 | we have our full text
group and all of our animators.
| | 04:21 | So you can convert text
layers into editable text.
| | 04:26 | One more time, let's select Layer 3, go up
to Layer > Convert to Editable Text.
| | 04:32 | All right, now let's look at the Black_Bar.
| | 04:36 | Notice it did come across
since it was a Shape Layer.
| | 04:39 | It did come across with a mask, and if you
press M we do have a Mask Path that's on here.
| | 04:46 | Let's open up it's options
and notice we have Layer Styles.
| | 04:51 | Our Stroke came across
and it's editable as well.
| | 04:55 | All right, let's keep going.
| | 04:57 | We have our precompose layers.
| | 05:00 | Notice they are precomposed.
| | 05:02 | So Group Layers, layers of
layers inside of Photoshop, come across
| | 05:08 | as precompositions.
| | 05:10 | When we select the Was_panel and the Ore_
panel, the blend modes have transferred.
| | 05:15 | If we press T to open their Opacity,
their opacities have transferred.
| | 05:19 | So I think your seeing that the
integration between Photoshop and After
| | 05:23 | Effects is really flexible.
| | 05:25 | The last thing I want to
point out is this SW_Area.
| | 05:29 | Notice if we press M there is no mask.
| | 05:32 | If we turn the visibility off and on
it's definitely a layer and it did bring
| | 05:37 | it's Layer Styles across but the mask--
if we jump back to Photoshop here, this
| | 05:42 | Layer Mask was applied on import.
| | 05:46 | So that did not come across as
editable but it was applied to the layer.
| | 05:51 | So to sum up, I think you can see how
integrated Photoshop and After Effects is.
| | 05:55 | So the next time you have to create some
complicated graphics don't sit in After
| | 05:59 | Effects trying to re-create it with
masks and all kinds of other things, just
| | 06:03 | jump over to Photoshop.
| | 06:05 | Save it as a Layered Document and
import it as a comp and you can retain
| | 06:09 | the layer sizes.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Importing Illustrator files| 00:00 | Now in this movie we're going to
cover how to get your layered Illustrator
| | 00:03 | documents into After Effects.
| | 00:05 | So if you navigate in your Exercise
Files folder to the Footage folder, in the
| | 00:10 | Illustrator Folder, go ahead
and double-click on kineteco_01.
| | 00:15 | This document I've already
prepared for import into After Effects.
| | 00:19 | But I want to show you exactly what I've done.
| | 00:22 | First thing, whenever you have live,
editable type inside of Illustrator, if you
| | 00:27 | want to bring that in and edit it as
shapes, what you should do is select the
| | 00:32 | type layer and then go up
under Type > Create Outlines.
| | 00:37 | Now I've taken things to the next
step by taking each individual letter and
| | 00:41 | putting it on it's own layer.
| | 00:43 | This way I can animate each one of these layers.
| | 00:47 | After Effects will recognize
the top of the layer hierarchy.
| | 00:50 | So to illustrate my point, let's select
the top O layer and just create a new layer.
| | 00:56 | Now I'm going to click on the O layer and
Shift+Click on the E layer so all three
| | 01:02 | layers are selected.
| | 01:04 | Now we can drag them and drop them up
into layer 20 until you see this hand.
| | 01:09 | When you let go, you can see that
the layers have been dropped in.
| | 01:13 | Let's rename layer 20 ECO with capital letters.
| | 01:18 | Now these letters will be imported
as one layer inside of After Effects.
| | 01:22 | I've brought each one of this shapes
into one layer and named it Blue, and as you
| | 01:26 | can see it's one shape.
| | 01:28 | Before I save a file to go into After
Effects from Illustrator, I like to go up
| | 01:35 | under File and say Save As and
save a copy or a different name.
| | 01:39 | Because of the process of putting this
on separate layers, I'd still like to be
| | 01:43 | able to get the other version of the file.
| | 01:46 | So I'm going to name this kineteco_01_AE.ai.
| | 01:52 | That way I know it's ready
to import into After Effects.
| | 01:56 | Now there's another reason I'm
saving this as a different name and that's
| | 01:59 | because I have multiple project
Files in your exercise files that are
| | 02:03 | referencing this kineteco_01 Illustrator file.
| | 02:07 | So just understand that if you're editing with
this, you do want to save it as a different name.
| | 02:12 | Okay, now let's click Save and we
can leave Create PDF Compatible Files
| | 02:17 | selected and just click OK.
| | 02:20 | Now if we jump into After Effects
you can just double-click in the Project
| | 02:25 | panel to open up the Import Document.
| | 02:28 | Now if you're not already there, just
navigate through your exercise files in
| | 02:32 | the Footage folder under Illustrator
and there's our kineteco_01_AE.ai file.
| | 02:38 | Now when we import this, if we
imported this footage it will be flat.
| | 02:42 | So this time, I want to choose Composition.
| | 02:45 | Make sure this button is not
selected, just in case layers have numbers,
| | 02:49 | sometimes this can foul things up.
| | 02:51 | All right, when we click Open,
notice the document is imported as a comp.
| | 02:57 | We can double-click the document and will
open our Comp Window and our layer timeline.
| | 03:03 | And as you can see, if we open the
folder in the Project panel, each one of
| | 03:08 | the layers has been brought in as
it's own Illustrator file that we could
| | 03:11 | drag to other comps.
| | 03:13 | Okay, now let's close that.
| | 03:15 | Now let's look at the layers.
| | 03:16 | As you can see, ECO has been
brought in all as one layer.
| | 03:21 | Now another great thing about
After Effects CS6, you can convert your
| | 03:26 | Illustrator Shape layers into actual
Shape layers inside of After Effects.
| | 03:32 | So let's select our Blue layer 12.
| | 03:35 | And turn the visibility Off and back On.
| | 03:38 | Okay, Blue layer 12.
| | 03:40 | If you go up to the Layer menu you can go
down to Create Shapes from Vector Layer.
| | 03:45 | Once you do that, notice now the
Blue layer has been turned off.
| | 03:49 | And if you scroll up to the top of the
timeline, sure enough I have a Shape layer.
| | 03:54 | Now I can open up the options for
the Shape layer and you can see each
| | 03:59 | individual piece has been
brought in as it's own group.
| | 04:03 | And yes, I can add animators to this
layer and animate it like a Shape layer.
| | 04:10 | So as you can see, layer hierarchy is
extraordinarily important when it comes to
| | 04:14 | importing your Illustrator
documents into After Effects.
| | 04:18 | Also, if you want to bring them in as
separate layers, make sure to import
| | 04:22 | them as a composition.
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| Working With Premiere Pro projects| 00:00 | Now Adobe Premiere and Adobe After
Effects do communicate extraordinarily
| | 00:05 | well together.
| | 00:06 | The two main ways of sending files
or projects back and forth are Dynamic
| | 00:11 | Link and importing.
| | 00:13 | So for example, from inside of After
Effects, I can import a Premiere Pro
| | 00:18 | sequence or I can connect to a sequence
via Dynamic Link and there is a slight
| | 00:23 | difference, I will definitely show
you that as we go through this video.
| | 00:28 | So to get started, let's go to our
Exercise Files folder, and under Footage, go to
| | 00:34 | the 06_Premiere folder and
open the ECO_Edit.prproj.
| | 00:40 | Let's preview our sequence.
| | 00:42 | I'm just going to click in the timeline to
make it active and press the Spacebar.
| | 00:45 | (video playing)
| | 00:54 | So as you can see, I have an edit here.
| | 00:57 | It's a short edit but it's an edit.
| | 01:00 | I have multiple video clips and an audio clip.
| | 01:03 | There is a cross dissolve and this
second clip, if we right-click and go to
| | 01:08 | Speed/Duration, you can see
it's set to Reverse Speed.
| | 01:12 | I'm just going to click OK.
| | 01:14 | Any time from within Premiere, you can
highlight a section within a sequence and
| | 01:19 | right-click and say Replace
With After Effects Composition.
| | 01:24 | Now that's not what I want to do
because it will send all the files over to
| | 01:27 | After Effects, but then there is going
to be a Dynamic Link between the two.
| | 01:31 | Meaning anytime I wanted to make any
changes to this edit, I would have to
| | 01:35 | go back to After Effects because I
replaced this section with an After
| | 01:39 | Effects project.
| | 01:40 | Now most of the time, when I'm creating
graphics and I'm integrating Premiere,
| | 01:46 | it goes the other way.
| | 01:47 | I created Premiere edit, and I just
import that edit into After Effects and
| | 01:52 | there's no link back and forth.
| | 01:54 | I just bring it in and then I can continue
working natively inside of After Effects.
| | 01:59 | So let's jump in to After Effects and
then I can show you the different ways to
| | 02:04 | import Premiere projects.
| | 02:06 | If you go to file, there is
an option for Dynamic Link.
| | 02:10 | And then here, if I say Import Premiere
Pro Sequence, I can navigate through my
| | 02:15 | exercise files to that sequence we were
just looking at, and it would bring it in
| | 02:19 | as a flattened composition.
| | 02:21 | That's not what I want because then
again, if I wanted to edit this, I have to
| | 02:25 | go back to Premiere.
| | 02:27 | What we want to do is under
the File menu go up to Import.
| | 02:30 | Now under Import, choose
Adobe Premiere Pro Project.
| | 02:35 | Let's navigate in our exercise files.
| | 02:38 | In the Footage folder,
we have a Premiere folder.
| | 02:40 | In there, I have my ECO_Edit.
| | 02:43 | So let's click Open and it's going to
give me the option, if I had multiple
| | 02:48 | sequences I could bring them all in.
Since I only have one, I'm going to
| | 02:52 | choose that one ECO_Edit.
| | 02:54 | Now you could choose to import the audio or not.
| | 02:57 | Since I did have the audio, I'm
going to go ahead and import it.
| | 03:00 | So if we click OK, notice now we
have a composition inside of our After
| | 03:05 | Effects project.
| | 03:06 | It does have our audio file, as well
as the two video files that we edited.
| | 03:11 | Now let's see what came across.
| | 03:13 | If we double-click the ECO_Edit project,
| | 03:16 | first thing you may notice is this
looks slightly squashed or distorted.
| | 03:20 | If you click this button to the left of
the Fast Preview button, right here, that
| | 03:25 | will adjust for the Pixel Aspect Ratio.
| | 03:29 | So if we look at our sequence
settings, notice it's set to 960x720.
| | 03:34 | If I open it up by right-clicking and
saying Composition Settings, in here
| | 03:39 | you can see the Pixel Aspect Ratio is
for HDV DVCPRO, so it's not a square
| | 03:44 | Pixel Aspect Ratio.
| | 03:46 | Let's click OK.
| | 03:47 | If you look at our comp, you can see I
have all the edits and if I select Layers
| | 03:53 | 1, 2, 3, and press U to open up any
animation, you can see my Cross Dissolve came
| | 03:59 | through, as well as this little area
right here, notice the line is red.
| | 04:05 | Well if I select that layer and go
up under Layer > Time, look at the
| | 04:11 | Time Stretch section.
| | 04:12 | In here you can see its set to -100,
| | 04:15 | meaning it's playing backwards, so Cancel.
| | 04:19 | All right, so as you can see, I brought this in.
| | 04:21 | Now in bringing this in, I'm still
referencing these QuickTime files in my folders.
| | 04:27 | So if I right-clicked on the video
source, I could say Reveal in Finder or
| | 04:31 | Reveal in Windows Explorer and it would
take me to my Video folder where I have
| | 04:36 | everything organized.
| | 04:37 | This is yet another reason why you
want to keep your projects organized in a
| | 04:41 | very organized fashion.
| | 04:43 | That way when you're in all this
different projects you'll always know
| | 04:47 | where your footage is.
| | 04:48 | Now let's jump back in After Effects.
| | 04:51 | So that being said, we could continue
editing this inside of After Effects;
| | 04:55 | apply Filters, what have you.
| | 04:57 | All of this footage is saved here in
After Effects and it's completely separate
| | 05:02 | from that Premiere Pro sequence.
| | 05:04 | We just imported the sequence and since
Premiere references the QuickTime files
| | 05:09 | off the drive, After
Effects can do the same thing.
| | 05:12 | It's just we brought in all of the
editing that we had done from Premiere.
| | 05:16 | So yes, Premiere and After
Effects are pretty well integrated.
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
12. Project: Tracking and Advanced 3DAdjusting ray-tracing quality| 00:00 | The Camera Tracker inside of Adobe
After Effects is nothing short of amazing.
| | 00:05 | It can analyze the footage and
recreate a camera inside of After Effects to
| | 00:09 | replicate the camera that you
actually shot the footage with.
| | 00:12 | This way you can insert any elements
that you have created into the scene and
| | 00:16 | make it look like they were actually there.
| | 00:19 | To get started let's look at our footage.
| | 00:22 | I'm going to press 0 and load up a RAM
Preview and you can see that I have some
| | 00:26 | rather shaky footage.
| | 00:29 | And I did this as kind of a proof of concept.
| | 00:32 | I went out and shot this with my iPhone
and I wanted it to be shaky, because I
| | 00:36 | wanted to see just how
powerful this Camera Tracker could be.
| | 00:39 | So I'm going to press Home
and apply the Camera Tracker.
| | 00:44 | Now there are multiple ways
you can apply the tracker.
| | 00:47 | First way, if you right-click on the
layer you can choose Track Camera.
| | 00:51 | When this happens you will see this
blue bar that pops-up and in the upper
| | 00:54 | left corner of your Effects control you
will get a status update as to how the
| | 00:59 | progress is going as it's analyzing the
footage trying to figure out where the camera was.
| | 01:04 | You could also go up under Effects
and go to Perspective > 3D Camera Tracker
| | 01:09 | to apply one, or you could go
to the Animation menu and choose Track Camera.
| | 01:13 | Once this has finished analyzing what's
going on in the scene, I'll jump back
| | 01:18 | in here and show you what we've come up with.
| | 01:21 | All right, so you can see now it's actually
solving the camera and then you will see
| | 01:25 | these little things on the screen that look
like, I don't know, Rainbow Brite crosshairs.
| | 01:31 | They're really cool, because they
actually track pieces of data in the scene
| | 01:37 | based on where they are
in relation to the camera.
| | 01:40 | So for example, if I scrub through my
timeline, notice how all of these little
| | 01:45 | elements stay where they
supposedly were created within the scene.
| | 01:49 | I know it's a little jarring as I
keep moving my mouse over these crosshairs,
| | 01:53 | because you keep seeing this
big red target-looking thing.
| | 01:57 | That's exactly what this is. It's a target.
| | 01:59 | So as we move throughout the scene,
here let me zoom in so you can it a little
| | 02:03 | more clearly, notice I have a triangle
that gets created as I'm moving around.
| | 02:09 | What After Effects is doing is
triangulating between at least three points to
| | 02:13 | create an angle, or a plane, that we
could use as reference for placing
| | 02:18 | elements in the scene.
| | 02:19 | So if I zoom back out here, let's see
if we can place something a little over
| | 02:24 | here on the left-hand side.
| | 02:26 | Notice between these three points,
this is exactly what I'm looking for.
| | 02:30 | The target is aligned with the edge
of the ground and it looks like it's
| | 02:34 | accurate in terms of its angle.
| | 02:37 | You can choose to activate
crosshairs just by moving your mouse, or if you
| | 02:43 | left-click and drag you can
actually select a bunch of crosshairs.
| | 02:46 | Notice I'm drawing a lasso like that.
| | 02:49 | Notice the more I select, the more it
gives me some different perspectives.
| | 02:54 | Here let's choose over here, in the
lower right, I'm going to drag a lasso around
| | 02:57 | all these and you can see, okay, that's
quite not what I'm looking for, right?
| | 03:02 | So if you want to deselect some of the
points you can hold down Command or Ctrl
| | 03:07 | on the PC and as you deselect points
you can use that to figure out, okay, am I
| | 03:12 | getting closer, closer,
closer, you get the idea.
| | 03:16 | As you deselect you can get closer
or further away, heaven forbid, from
| | 03:20 | what you're looking for.
| | 03:22 | Honestly, as I move my mouse around,
you can see, okay, I think the three-point
| | 03:27 | versions are what's going to
give me the most accurate track.
| | 03:30 | So let's come back over here to
these three points and right-click.
| | 03:36 | Now when you right-click, you have some options.
| | 03:39 | The first four options are highlighted
here or we could delete the selected points.
| | 03:44 | Well I definitely don't want to delete these.
| | 03:46 | So let's look at these four options.
| | 03:48 | The first one, we can Create Text and a Camera.
| | 03:52 | This is what we're going to do right
now so you can see exactly what it's like
| | 03:55 | when you insert an element in the scene.
| | 03:58 | But these other two Solid and Camera and
Null and Camera, these are just kind of
| | 04:02 | personal preference.
| | 04:03 | I like working with Solids, because I
can set the interactivity between the
| | 04:07 | solid and the background layer and get
a better idea as to what's going on in
| | 04:10 | the scene, but some people like using a
Null and a Camera, because Null Objects
| | 04:15 | are very flexible and you don't have
to worry about whether they get rendered
| | 04:19 | into the scene if you want to
render what you're looking at.
| | 04:22 | This last one, Shadow Catcher, Camera
and Light, we will get to that later on in
| | 04:26 | the chapter, but basically it's when
you're trying to create a 3D composite and
| | 04:31 | really make something
look like it's in the scene.
| | 04:34 | So for right now let's
choose Create Text and Camera.
| | 04:38 | Notice we have text in the scene and it's
been placed, and look in our composition.
| | 04:44 | We have a Camera and we have Text.
| | 04:46 | Well let's select the Camera and press the
U key, and notice I have just a few keyframes.
| | 04:53 | There is Position, Orientation, and Zoom.
| | 04:57 | Now what's interesting, as I'm looking
at the Zoom, you can see when we scrub,
| | 05:02 | check it out, the Zoom
parameter is never changing.
| | 05:05 | That has to do with the setting we
used in the Camera Tracker by default.
| | 05:09 | So if we select Layer 3 and come back
up under the Camera Tracker, look at
| | 05:14 | the Shot Type option.
| | 05:15 | When I click on the pulldown,
it's set for a Fixed Angle of View.
| | 05:19 | This is great, because it already
figured out that I was using a camera that had
| | 05:23 | a lens that was at a fixed focal length.
| | 05:26 | If you're using a zoom lens, After Effects
would have probably switched to Variable Zoom.
| | 05:30 | If it didn't, you could always come here
and specify that, and then this last one
| | 05:35 | is to Specify an Angle of View if you
know that the scene just doesn't look
| | 05:40 | quite right in terms of what you're looking at.
| | 05:42 | You can specify the Angle of View if
you wanted to save some time, you could
| | 05:46 | just choose the Angle of
View for your individual lens.
| | 05:49 | I'll show you how to figure out your
own Angle of View later on in the chapter.
| | 05:54 | So let's select our text here and as
you can see it has an anchor point.
| | 05:58 | Now if we press U on the text
layer, notice there are no keyframes.
| | 06:03 | There are no keyframes, because all of
the position data is determined by our
| | 06:07 | camera in the scene.
| | 06:08 | Notice since layer 1 is inhabiting 3D
space, as we scrub through the timeline, it looks
| | 06:14 | like it's stuck in the scene.
| | 06:16 | Now this text is rather large for what
I'm looking for, so let's double-click on
| | 06:20 | the text layer and open up
our Character control panel.
| | 06:23 | In here we could change
the size down a little bit.
| | 06:26 | Let's change it to around 10 pixels.
| | 06:28 | That's great, and I'll deselect just
by clicking down in the bottom of the
| | 06:33 | timeline, reselect layer 1 and
press R for Rotation and Orientation.
| | 06:39 | We just need to flip this up on its X axis.
| | 06:42 | So we can change the X Rotation to 90
and press Tab, and now it's flipped up in
| | 06:48 | the scene and since it is kind of off
at a slight angle here, we can look at
| | 06:53 | adjusting the Y Rotation and
the Z Rotation. There we go!
| | 07:00 | Now that it looks like it's a little
closer into the scene in terms of what
| | 07:03 | we're looking at, it's sitting over the rock.
| | 07:06 | If you want to move this to a
different point, don't move the position.
| | 07:10 | Press A to select your anchor point,
because that way our point that was
| | 07:15 | tracked will stay in its place, and if
we just slide on the X axis, we can move
| | 07:19 | our text out of the way.
| | 07:21 | Let's see what we've got in our scene.
| | 07:23 | I'm going to press Home and zero on
the keypad to lit up a RAM Preview.
| | 07:28 | Let's hit the Spacebar just so we can
see the first couple of seconds, and as you
| | 07:32 | could see, this is tracked remarkably
well and obviously we haven't added any
| | 07:36 | shadows or texture or color or
anything like that for the time being.
| | 07:41 | But this is stuck in the scene
and it is moving quite nicely.
| | 07:45 | There's one last little
thing we could for polish.
| | 07:48 | If we stop playback here, we can
select layer 1 and enable Motion Blur.
| | 07:52 | If you click on that switch in the
timeline and then make sure it's enabled here
| | 07:56 | in the top of the timeline, we can
press Home to move our playhead to the
| | 08:00 | beginning and press 0 to load up a RAM Preview.
| | 08:07 | Okay, I think that's enough.
| | 08:08 | I'm going to hit the Spacebar so we
can check it out, and now you can see
| | 08:12 | there is motion blur.
| | 08:13 | I don't know about you, but I think
that looks pretty cool even if our text
| | 08:17 | literally just says Text.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Tracking footage| 00:00 | In this video we're going to use
the Camera Tracker to track our desk here.
| | 00:05 | And this scene is going to be a
little different than the previous video,
| | 00:08 | because in this scene the camera
was actually locked down on a tripod.
| | 00:13 | That gives After Effects a slightly
different bit of math to figure out.
| | 00:19 | So to show you what I'm talking about,
let's go ahead and apply the Camera
| | 00:22 | Tracker to our layer.
| | 00:24 | Now in the last video we just right-
clicked on the layer and said Track Camera,
| | 00:28 | but this time let's go up to
Animation > Track Camera.
| | 00:33 | There's always more than one
way to do things in After Effects.
| | 00:36 | If we look in our Effects controls, you
can see that the footage is being analyzed.
| | 00:41 | Now since we've already went over some
of these in the previous video, let's
| | 00:45 | jump down to the Advanced section.
| | 00:47 | Here under the Solve Method, After
Effects usually does a really good job of
| | 00:52 | guessing exactly which method to use,
and that's why most of the time I just
| | 00:57 | leave it on Auto Detect.
| | 00:59 | But sometimes it's wise to just click on
the pulldown and choose one of these options.
| | 01:05 | So Typical is the very first option and
that's usually what After Effects ends
| | 01:11 | up using, as long as your camera
is moving throughout a 3D scene.
| | 01:16 | If you shot a scene that's primarily a
bunch of flat surfaces, you'd want to
| | 01:20 | choose Mostly Flat Scene.
| | 01:21 | Since our shot specifically had a
camera on a tripod and it was literally just
| | 01:27 | panning, let's choose that option.
| | 01:30 | A lot of times when a footage is being
analyzed, if you choose a different method
| | 01:35 | from what it's using currently,
it may start the analysis again.
| | 01:40 | But even so a lot of times when it
figures out the analysis, even if it starts
| | 01:45 | it again, it's not really always
starting all the way over, it really doesn't
| | 01:48 | delay that much longer.
| | 01:51 | Notice down here in the Advanced
section also, since the track has been worked
| | 01:55 | out the Average Error is 0.65.
| | 01:59 | The smaller this number the more
accurate your tracks are going to be.
| | 02:04 | If this number isn't something that's
satisfactory to you, you can always select
| | 02:09 | Detailed Analysis and let it go at it again.
| | 02:13 | Let's hover our mouse around some of
these points and see, okay, so the target
| | 02:20 | is huge first off which leads me to
believe that there is something funky
| | 02:24 | going on with the scene.
| | 02:26 | Secondly, notice how the target
is perfectly flat to the camera.
| | 02:31 | Well that's because with the tripod
there is no actual depth being created.
| | 02:37 | See all of these points, imagine like
a string attached to the end of your
| | 02:42 | camera, attached to one of these points
that distance is always going to be the same.
| | 02:47 | When you're panning, you're not changing
the distance from the lens, you're just
| | 02:52 | changing the orientation to that point.
| | 02:55 | So After Effects feels no need
to actually create 3D from this.
| | 03:00 | I know you're thinking to yourself, well,
how am I going to get an object in the
| | 03:04 | scene without 3D data?
| | 03:07 | Well I can tell you it's not that bad.
| | 03:09 | Once you actually tie your graphic
to a point you can actually orient it
| | 03:14 | rather easily yourself.
| | 03:15 | But let's move around and see if we
can't figure out the issue with our target.
| | 03:21 | I could just crank the Target Size down,
but it's so rare that the target takes
| | 03:25 | over the screen like this.
| | 03:26 | Let's click through some of the menus
and see if we can figure things out.
| | 03:30 | Let's start by the Shot Type.
| | 03:32 | If you click on the pulldown, it was
correct in the Fixed Angle of View, but
| | 03:37 | let's see if we Specify the Angle
of View if we get any better results.
| | 03:41 | This Angle of View is set to 8.8 and
I'm pretty sure I don't have a camera that
| | 03:46 | shoots at 8.8 in terms of its Angle of View.
| | 03:49 | So to figure out what my lens was I'm just
going to go up Layer > New > Camera.
| | 03:56 | And in the Camera Settings here, I'm going
to go to the Focal Length and type in my lens.
| | 04:01 | I know I shot this with an 85 millimeter lens.
| | 04:05 | So when I type that in, I get 23.91 degrees.
| | 04:10 | So I'm going to cancel here and under
Angle of View I'm going to say 23.91 and
| | 04:17 | when I press Tab, now notice it
quickly resolved the scene and, hey check it
| | 04:23 | out, when I hover my mouse, now you
can actually see the target, and also when
| | 04:29 | you see the target, at the bottom it
gives you the same note I explained earlier.
| | 04:33 | There's no depth from a tripod pan solve.
| | 04:36 | That is perfectly okay.
| | 04:39 | Let's scrub through our scene, so we
can see exactly how this is panning over
| | 04:43 | the desk, and you notice there are some
points that are there and then there are
| | 04:48 | some points that actually disappear.
| | 04:51 | So let's choose one of these
points over here on the left.
| | 04:55 | Let's choose this green point.
| | 04:57 | I'm just going to choose one, right-
click, and say Create Solid and Camera.
| | 05:04 | Now when we do that, we have our
camera, if you press U with the camera
| | 05:08 | selected, you can see
Position, Orientation, and Zoom.
| | 05:12 | As we scrub through you can
see the zoom never changes.
| | 05:15 | Now our layer Solid, let's select
Track Solid 1 and press Shift+Command+Y to
| | 05:23 | open up the Solid Settings.
| | 05:25 | I want to set this to about 200x200.
| | 05:30 | Now when I click OK, I have a better
idea as to the perspective of my Solid.
| | 05:36 | And just so I can see through the
scene I'm going to press T to open up its
| | 05:40 | Opacity and set it down to around 50%.
| | 05:44 | Let's press R to open up
the Rotation and Orientation.
| | 05:49 | Let's click and drag on the X Orientation.
| | 05:53 | Let's drag it to the left so we can see if
we can match up the orientation of the table.
| | 06:00 | After we do the X let's click and drag
on the Z. Now what I'm trying to line up
| | 06:07 | is this scene here and this scene here.
| | 06:10 | If we scroll in a little bit to the
magnification and press the Spacebar, you
| | 06:15 | can see this line and this
line are not quite parallel.
| | 06:19 | See, we need to scrub the Z Orientation
and the X Orientation to actually get it
| | 06:25 | oriented to its proper angle.
| | 06:30 | There we go, and here let's scrub one more time.
| | 06:33 | Okay, this is starting to look a little better.
| | 06:34 | Let's zoom back out. There we go!
| | 06:37 | Now if we scrub through the scene,
you should notice that the Solid and the
| | 06:42 | video are moving in conjunction with each other.
| | 06:45 | If you're not, definitely make sure
you're in Draft mode and move your playhead
| | 06:50 | back and just load up a RAM Preview.
| | 06:54 | Now with this RAM preview, you should
notice that our layer Solid is stuck to
| | 06:58 | the table just as solidly as the
yellow sticky notes that were sitting there
| | 07:02 | in the first place.
| | 07:04 | And as this loads you'll
see there is hardly any drift.
| | 07:09 | I'm going to stop playback here for
a second and just watch in realtime.
| | 07:14 | As you can see it's kind of stuck solid to the
table, which is exactly what we're looking for.
| | 07:20 | Yes, we only use one point.
| | 07:22 | I'm going to stop playback there, but
it's still was able to get the job done.
| | 07:27 | Now in our next video, we're going to
focus on the 3D element that we will then
| | 07:32 | in turn end up compositing back into the scene.
| | 07:36 | Now just to show you the scene one more
time, let's switch the magnification to
| | 07:39 | fit up to 100%, and as we scrub through
here, you can see that this element isn't
| | 07:47 | ever going to fully end up in the scene.
| | 07:50 | I don't want you to panic, you can make
adjustments to this even though this is
| | 07:55 | applied to that one track point.
| | 07:57 | If you press A to open up the anchor
point, here we can scrub the anchor point
| | 08:02 | on the X axis and actually have it
slide around on the table, and even as we
| | 08:07 | scrub through, you can see that it's
still going to be stuck to the table
| | 08:12 | perfectly well without any drift.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Extruding shapes| 00:00 | To add true depth to your objects in
After Effects, you need to extrude them,
| | 00:04 | and there are two kinds of objects
you can extrude in After Effects.
| | 00:08 | The first one being Shape Layers
and the second one being Text Objects.
| | 00:13 | So if we look at our composition
here, you can see I have three layers.
| | 00:18 | If we toggle on and off the visibility, you
can see exactly which layer is what object.
| | 00:23 | Now notice these are Illustrator files.
| | 00:26 | If I click on the word Eco and open up its
options, I only have the Transform options.
| | 00:30 | This is not live editable text but a graphic.
| | 00:34 | I wanted to start from this point
because it's pretty common to get sent an
| | 00:38 | Illustrator file and be asked to animate it.
| | 00:41 | Also, one of the great things about
the integration between Illustrator
| | 00:45 | and After Effects is the fact that
you can convert any Illustrator layer
| | 00:50 | into a Shape layer.
| | 00:51 | So let's select Layer 3 and go up under
Layer > Create Shapes from Vector Layer.
| | 00:58 | When we do that, notice the
visibility of Layer 4 has turned off and we
| | 01:02 | have shape outlines.
| | 01:04 | Now just for good housekeeping sake,
let's enable shy on the Shape layer and
| | 01:08 | then turn on our Shy guy
in the top of our timeline.
| | 01:12 | With that original layer hidden, I want
to now enable 3D on all of these layers.
| | 01:18 | So let's go to the Switches panel and
click and drag across all of the layers
| | 01:22 | to enable 3D for all of them.
| | 01:24 | Let's open up some of the
options for these layers.
| | 01:28 | If you expand Layer 3 notice
I have my Material Options.
| | 01:32 | And if we open the Transform
Options I have the normal X, Y, Z options.
| | 01:36 | Okay, that's well and good.
| | 01:37 | With the Shape layer, if we open that up, you
can see I do have all my options for each shape.
| | 01:44 | Notice I have Paths and Fills, and if
we zoom in here, you can see it's drawn a
| | 01:50 | path for each individual
shape on the layer. All right,
| | 01:54 | now let's collapse our Shape layer,
and notice the Transform options here
| | 01:58 | normal X, Y, Z things.
| | 02:00 | We really won't get the Extrude
option until we change our renderer.
| | 02:05 | So let's go to the upper right
corner of the Comp Viewer and click on
| | 02:09 | the Classic 3D button.
| | 02:10 | This will take us to the Composition
Settings in the Advanced tab, and under
| | 02:14 | here we can click on the
pulldown for the Renderer.
| | 02:18 | So let's change it from
Classic 3D to Ray-traced 3D.
| | 02:22 | Now before we click OK, watch the
options here on my Shape Outlines. When I
| | 02:26 | click OK, notice now I get the
subset of options for Geometry Options.
| | 02:32 | If I expand that group here, you can
see I can control Bevel, which I'll
| | 02:37 | explain here in a second.
| | 02:39 | The Hole Depth which is the areas in
between any holes, you can control how
| | 02:44 | strong or loose that works.
| | 02:46 | But Extrusion Depth is where you
can actually add depth to this object.
| | 02:51 | I want to show you something really quickly,
but notice my scene is still trying to render.
| | 02:56 | I can see that here in the Comp
Viewer and I can also see it with my mouse.
| | 03:01 | If you press Caps Lock on your
keyboard it will disable the render as it's
| | 03:06 | happening, and you can scroll
freely up and down on your Layer panel.
| | 03:10 | The reason I wanted to enable this, if
we scroll down to the Geometry Options
| | 03:15 | for Layer 3, here let me make
the timeline a little larger.
| | 03:19 | Notice in my Geometry Options for Layer
3 I have a Curve setting and Segments,
| | 03:25 | but I don't have any Extrude options.
| | 03:28 | Notice for Layer 1, I have
Bevel and Extrude Options.
| | 03:32 | That's the difference between a normal
3D Layer in the Ray-traced Renderer, and
| | 03:37 | a Shape Layer in the Ray-traced Renderer.
| | 03:39 | I get extra options for
extrusion with Shape layers.
| | 03:44 | Now while the Refresh is disabled,
let's just go ahead and click on Extrusion
| | 03:48 | Depth and change it from zero to 20.
| | 03:51 | I'm going to press Enter
on my keyboard to set that.
| | 03:54 | Let's go back and resize our interface
so the timeline is a little smaller, and
| | 03:59 | change the Magnification back to Fit to 100.
| | 04:03 | Now let's click our Caps Lock and
disable refresh so it redraws the scene.
| | 04:09 | I use that key command quite a bit
when I know there are just specific
| | 04:12 | parameters I'm trying to change and I
don't necessarily need to see anything in
| | 04:16 | the scene at that point in time.
| | 04:18 | Now another way we could speed this
up, if you click on your Fast Preview
| | 04:22 | button in the lower right corner of
your Comp Viewer, we could change this from
| | 04:26 | Adaptive Resolution to Draft or Fast Draft.
| | 04:29 | Let's see what happens
when we change it to Draft.
| | 04:32 | Notice it should move a lot more quickly.
| | 04:35 | Also, we can change the
Resolution from Full to Auto.
| | 04:38 | This will speed things up.
| | 04:40 | Notice it defaulted to setting half resolution
because I'm roughly at half my magnification.
| | 04:46 | Okay, now let's zoom in to the scene.
| | 04:48 | I'm just scrolling in with my mouse
and I'm going to press the Spacebar and
| | 04:50 | click and drag so we can
kind of center up this object.
| | 04:54 | Notice, I'm not really seeing
any true dimension to this object.
| | 04:59 | In order to see better dimension, let's
change from 1 View to 2 Views - Horizontal.
| | 05:04 | In the top view on the left side, notice
I have depth but I'm really not getting
| | 05:09 | a perspective with this depth.
| | 05:11 | So what we need to do is change the
left view from Top to Custom View 1.
| | 05:15 | Now you want to make sure you're
seeing these yellow triangles in the corners,
| | 05:19 | that way you know that this is selected.
| | 05:21 | So I'm going to click in the gray area
on the left side making sure it's active
| | 05:25 | and change to Custom View 1.
| | 05:28 | Now with that set up, I can scroll
into my view with my mouse and press the
| | 05:32 | Spacebar to kind of set this up.
| | 05:34 | There are a number of ways that I could
actually see the dimension of my extrusion.
| | 05:40 | The first way is to add a light in the scene.
| | 05:42 | So let's get started with that.
| | 05:44 | We can go up under Layer and choose New > Light.
| | 05:47 | When we add a light, I'm
going to add a Point light.
| | 05:50 | We can leave its Intensity a
little over a hundred at 108.
| | 05:53 | I do want to Cast Shadows because I
found that that does sort of just increase
| | 05:58 | the definition what I'm looking at.
| | 06:01 | And we can leave the Fallof
at Inverse Square Clamped.
| | 06:03 | Now let's click OK.
| | 06:04 | Now it's going to take a second for
the scene to re-render, but notice
| | 06:08 | immediately now I can start
to see the edges of my shape.
| | 06:12 | Now I'm going to zoom out over my
Active Camera here, I'm just moving my mouse
| | 06:17 | over the Active Camera and
scrolling out with my mouse.
| | 06:20 | I can click on the X control handle
and bring the light over towards the
| | 06:24 | left side of my shape.
| | 06:26 | I know I'm still not relatively close
to the shape because I'm not quite seeing
| | 06:31 | my Control Handles there.
| | 06:33 | So if we zoom out in this part of the
scene, I can just pull up on the Y axis
| | 06:38 | and move a little closer to the shape
on the Z axis from the Custom View panel.
| | 06:46 | Okay, this is looking pretty good.
| | 06:48 | Let's zoom back in to my Custom View
and now you can see we have our shape.
| | 06:54 | I'm not really seeing too much
dimension other than my extrusion because I
| | 06:59 | haven't adjusted the
Material Options for the shape yet.
| | 07:03 | So let's select our Shape Outlines
layer and press AA to open not only the
| | 07:09 | Geometry Options but my Material Options.
| | 07:12 | Notice here, I have a ton of Material
Options and we will get in depth with
| | 07:16 | these in a later video.
| | 07:18 | Right now, I just want you
to focus on Transparency.
| | 07:21 | If we click and drag that to the right,
let's increase our Transparency to around 65%.
| | 07:27 | I can actually start to see through my shape.
| | 07:31 | If you press Shift+Command+H or Shift+
Ctrl+H on the PC, we can turn off the
| | 07:37 | section boundaries or Light Control handles.
| | 07:40 | That will just give us a
little more definition to our shape.
| | 07:43 | Now there's one more thing we need to look at
with extruding our shape and then we're done.
| | 07:48 | If we scroll back up here,
there is an option for Bevels.
| | 07:52 | We have a Bevel Depth but notice
the Bevel Style is set to None.
| | 07:56 | So let's click on that
and change that to Convex.
| | 08:00 | That means the edge of this layer is going
to be bevelled in a slightly convexed fashion.
| | 08:05 | So if I zoom in a little more closely
here, notice I'm getting highlights right
| | 08:10 | around the sides of my shape.
| | 08:13 | Since this is at 200% it's a little jagged.
| | 08:15 | But if I really wanted to see the
quality of this, we could change from Draft
| | 08:19 | mode to Off in our Quick View options.
| | 08:22 | So let's go ahead and turn that off and
see what we've done with our extrusion.
| | 08:28 | So now let's zoom out to 100% and you can
see we have successfully extruded our shape.
| | 08:33 | The next steps would be dealing
with the Material Options and actually
| | 08:38 | refining the lighting.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Bending layers| 00:00 | To continue on with our theme of 3D, we're
going to explore how you can bend layers.
| | 00:06 | So the kinds of layers you can bend
inside of After Effects are Photoshop
| | 00:10 | layers, Illustrator layers and layer Solids.
| | 00:15 | In the 3D Options for Shape layers
and Text layers you can extrude but
| | 00:20 | there's no option for Bend.
| | 00:22 | The option is literally called Curvature.
| | 00:25 | So to look at this, let's start by
actually adding a layer Solid to the scene.
| | 00:29 | Go up under the Layer
menu and choose New > Solid.
| | 00:33 | I'm going to make it the comp size
by clicking the button and grab the
| | 00:36 | Eyedropper and choosing this
turquoise color just so we match the scene.
| | 00:41 | When I click OK, we have a layer Solid.
| | 00:44 | If we enable 3D on this layer, again,
because we're in the Ray-traced 3D
| | 00:49 | Renderer, if we press AA to open up
our Geometry Options, notice here's the
| | 00:54 | setting for Curvature.
| | 00:57 | Let's crank this up to a 100 so you
can see clearly what's happening here.
| | 01:01 | Now I'm going to switch to 2 Views -
Horizontal so you can view this from a
| | 01:05 | slightly different angle to really
understand exactly what's going on.
| | 01:09 | As you can see here, I have this layer
that's bending in the background, if I
| | 01:14 | select the layer Solid, notice
I can't see any of the handles.
| | 01:18 | That's just because in the previous
video we had pressed Shift+Command+H to hide
| | 01:23 | all of those bounding boxes.
| | 01:25 | So press Shift+Command+H if you can't see that.
| | 01:28 | If I zoom out with my mouse wheel, here
you can see the bounding box corresponds
| | 01:33 | directly to the amount of the Curvature.
| | 01:36 | Notice the edges of this are rather jagged.
| | 01:38 | Well that's the number of segments that
are created to actually create that curve.
| | 01:43 | So if you click and drag on this
parameter we can increase it and now you
| | 01:47 | notice we can get a beautiful
smooth curve out of the scene.
| | 01:50 | Decrease the Curvature of this layer
and notice as we bring the Curvature down
| | 01:55 | the bounding box gets smaller.
| | 01:57 | This is a very good example
of seeing how Curvature works.
| | 02:01 | Let's just collapse Layer 1, and I'm
going to enable its shy just by clicking on
| | 02:06 | Shy and hide the layer out of the view,
because we're not going to be using it
| | 02:10 | anytime particularly soon.
| | 02:12 | Now with our two words,
let's select the word kinet.
| | 02:17 | If you notice I can already tell
there's an issue because the bounding box is
| | 02:21 | the entire composition size.
| | 02:24 | So if we press AA to open up our
Geometry Options, if you click and drag on the
| | 02:29 | Curvature, notice the curve is going to
be applied starting all the way out at the
| | 02:34 | edges of the composition.
| | 02:36 | That's not what we want.
| | 02:37 | So I'm just going to Command+
Z or Ctrl+Z on the PC to undo.
| | 02:42 | And let's turn off the
visibility for Layer 5 and Layer 4.
| | 02:46 | What we need to do is re-import these
Illustrator layers as Compositions Layer Size.
| | 02:52 | So let's double-click in the Project
panel and navigate through our exercise
| | 02:57 | files, in the Footage Folder under Illustrator,
| | 03:01 | here's the kinetEco_Extrude Illustrator file.
| | 03:05 | Now we're not going to be
extruding this, we'll just be bending.
| | 03:08 | So we can choose Composition - Retain
Layer Sizes, and make sure this is not
| | 03:14 | selected and click Open.
| | 03:16 | Now when I click Open, this is
going to bring in each of these layers at
| | 03:20 | their individual size.
| | 03:22 | So, if we double-click to open the
Extrude 2 comp, notice when I select each one
| | 03:26 | of these layers, now the bounding
box is directly around each word.
| | 03:30 | So to add this to the other comp I'm
just going to select Layer 1, Shift+Click
| | 03:34 | on Layer 2 and Copy, Command+C and
Paste, Command+V. Notice when I did the
| | 03:41 | Paste command, I had the Layer 7 selected, so
that's where the layers were inserted above.
| | 03:47 | So let's just drag this two layers
right below Layer 3 and you guessed it,
| | 03:52 | since the visibility of 6 and 7 are
off, we can just enable shy for those layers.
| | 03:58 | Okay, now notice we can't see our two new layers.
| | 04:02 | Well that's because 3D wasn't enabled.
| | 04:05 | So let's just click and drag
down the 3D parameter to enable 3D.
| | 04:10 | Now we can see the layers in our scene.
| | 04:12 | And also notice in the timeline,
there are no blend mode or Track Matte
| | 04:16 | options for 3D layers inside of the Ray-traced
Renderer, so we can hide that in the timeline.
| | 04:22 | Just right-click in the gray area,
go to Columns and disable Modes.
| | 04:27 | Okay, this will just give us a
little bit more space in the timeline.
| | 04:30 | Now to bend our layers. If you
selected the Eco 2 layer and press AA to open
| | 04:37 | up its Geometry Options we can increase
its Curvature just by clicking and dragging.
| | 04:41 | And notice it will curve
around the center point.
| | 04:45 | Now what I want to do is bend both of
these layers so they curve very much like
| | 04:50 | this layer in the
background, but across both words.
| | 04:54 | If we zoom in, in the Custom View
layer, notice it may take a second to
| | 04:58 | refresh, that's fine.
| | 05:00 | I'm just going to drag over
here, so I can see the layer.
| | 05:04 | Now notice I have depth but it
hasn't really curved very much.
| | 05:07 | So let's increase this curve
number to around 35 and press Tab.
| | 05:13 | I've added a slight curve to this but
I want the curve to start from the left
| | 05:17 | edge, so in order to do that I
need to adjust the anchor point.
| | 05:22 | To quickly adjust the anchor point, I'm
going to select Layer 4 in the timeline
| | 05:26 | and press Shift+A. This will add the
Anchor Point parameter to the other
| | 05:31 | parameters that are currently open.
| | 05:33 | Now if I click and drag on the X axis,
I can move the orientation of this layer
| | 05:39 | over to the left side.
| | 05:41 | Now notice as I'm dragging this
number is getting close to zero.
| | 05:44 | Well the left side will be zero, so let's
just click on that and change it to zero.
| | 05:50 | With any layer that's selected, the
zero point is always going to be the
| | 05:54 | upper left-hand corner.
| | 05:55 | So when we typed zero it automatically
snapped the anchor point to the left edge and
| | 06:00 | now all we have left to do is
reposition it in the scene by clicking and
| | 06:04 | dragging on the X control handle.
| | 06:07 | This may get very slow in terms of its
refresh as we're dragging, and the way
| | 06:12 | we can deal with this is by clicking
and holding on our Fast Preview button in
| | 06:16 | the lower right corner of the Comp Viewer and
making sure that we're actually set to Draft.
| | 06:21 | Now once we're set to Draft, it will
take a second to re-render but you should
| | 06:24 | notice the refresh being a little bit quicker.
| | 06:27 | Once Eco is relatively close to our kinet
layer, it's time to do the same for kinet.
| | 06:33 | So as I'm clicking and dragging, notice
I'm looking here in the Active Camera as
| | 06:38 | well as my Custom View.
| | 06:39 | So I have a better idea as to their
location based on what's really going to render.
| | 06:44 | So to better line up the curve,
select Layer 4 and press R to open up its
| | 06:48 | Rotation and Orientation.
| | 06:50 | Now we can just click and drag on the Y
Rotation to reposition how the curve of
| | 06:56 | this layer is going to line-up
as it gets into the word kinet.
| | 07:00 | So it looks like a value
of 25 looks pretty good.
| | 07:04 | Now as I adjust kinet, I want Eco to
follow along, so I'm going to make Eco
| | 07:10 | the child of kinet.
| | 07:11 | So click on the pick whip in the
Parent column for the Eco Layer and point it
| | 07:15 | towards the kinet Layer.
| | 07:18 | When we select the kinet layer in the
timeline, let's press AA to open up the
| | 07:22 | Curvature options and increase its curvature.
| | 07:26 | Just to make sure things are even,
let's reselect Layer 4, press AA and make a
| | 07:31 | note of the Curvature settings here. Okay,
| | 07:33 | so we're set at 35% here.
| | 07:36 | Let's go down to Layer 5 and
change the Curvature to 35% here.
| | 07:42 | It may take a second to refresh but
once this is actually set up, what we can do
| | 07:47 | is go back to our Eco 2 layer and
adjust its Rotation by pressing R and just
| | 07:55 | increasing the rotation just a little bit more.
| | 07:57 | Let's increase it to around 35.
| | 08:00 | No, let's increase it to 45. Okay,
| | 08:03 | now it looks like this is going to
curve into this layer a little bit more.
| | 08:09 | And since Eco is set up as the child of
kinet, if we did want to rotate kinet,
| | 08:15 | let's press R with kinet selected,
notice Eco would rotate accordingly with it
| | 08:21 | because it's tied together.
| | 08:23 | So let's take a look at our scene
by selecting our Active Camera and
| | 08:27 | switching back to 1 View.
| | 08:29 | And as you can see, we've definitely got
a good jump on everything with our logo
| | 08:33 | being bent and the background being bent,
all by using the Curvature Settings.
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Adjusting ray-traced lighting and materials| 00:00 | Now if you're following me from the last
video, I did finish repositioning these
| | 00:04 | layers in 3D space so that the
curve lined up a little more cleanly.
| | 00:09 | In this video, we're going to focus on
getting the Material Settings and the
| | 00:13 | Light Settings set up properly so when
we go to insert our logo back onto the
| | 00:19 | desk that we tracked at the beginning
of the chapter, it would be relatively
| | 00:22 | easy to get it to match into the scene.
| | 00:25 | Most of the time if I'm trying to
create an element that matches back into the
| | 00:28 | scene, obviously I'd want to look
at the lighting of the original scene
| | 00:32 | especially if I'm trying to make it
look extraordinarily photorealistic.
| | 00:36 | Since this is going to be more of a surreal
scene, we don't necessarily have to do that.
| | 00:40 | So I'm just going to focus on all the
lighting in here right now and then worry
| | 00:44 | about how it looks in the
scene a little bit later.
| | 00:47 | So to get started, most of the time I
like to duplicate my comp and rename it so
| | 00:52 | I know this is going to be the final
lit comp to actually input in our scene.
| | 00:57 | So let's go up to the Project panel
and select our kinetEco_Extrude comp and
| | 01:02 | just Command+D or Ctrl+D on the PC to
duplicate that comp, and we can press
| | 01:08 | Return and rename it.
| | 01:10 | So I'll call this Logo_Comp_OUT,
that lets me know this will be the comp
| | 01:21 | that's going to go out.
| | 01:22 | We can double-click that comp to make sure
that we're in that comp and now let's get started.
| | 01:28 | Okay, first thing, disable the Shy
button to make sure we don't have any
| | 01:32 | extemporaneous layers we
don't need to be dealing with.
| | 01:35 | So I'm just going to collapse Layer 7
here and click and draw a lasso around 8,
| | 01:40 | 7 and 6 by starting down here
below and then just press Delete.
| | 01:46 | Since we don't need those
layers, we can just delete them.
| | 01:48 | This Cyan Solid we're going to change.
| | 01:51 | A lot of times when you're creating
elements where there is going to be lights
| | 01:55 | and shadows, you will need to create a
layer called a Shadow Catcher Layer, so
| | 01:59 | let's start by renaming Layer 1.
| | 02:01 | So select Layer 1, press Return and
name it shadow catcher. There we go.
| | 02:06 | Okay, now let's disable Shy for this
layer and since it's going to be a Shadow
| | 02:11 | Catcher, we need to make it light and
actually put it as the floor of our scene.
| | 02:16 | So let's drag it to the bottom of the
Layer Hierarchy since we want it to be
| | 02:19 | underneath everything else, and press
Shift+Command+Y, Shift+Ctrl+Y on the PC, and
| | 02:26 | open up the Solid Settings for this layer.
| | 02:29 | Click in the Color Well for the
color and just change the color to white.
| | 02:34 | Click OK and then click New even though
we're not creating a new layer, that's
| | 02:37 | how we'll complete this.
| | 02:39 | For this to be a floor, we need to
adjust the curvature back to flat.
| | 02:43 | So press AA to open up the Curvature
options, change the Curvature to zero and
| | 02:49 | we can change our Segments
back to the default setting of 4.
| | 02:53 | We can press R to open the Orientation and on
the X axis, let's just change it to 90 degrees.
| | 03:01 | Now you notice when we hover over this Blue
control handle, it's the Z axis of the object.
| | 03:08 | If we change the object
orientation handles you see Z is pointed
| | 03:12 | straight towards us.
| | 03:13 | But the object is oriented this way, so
let's click on the Blue control handle
| | 03:18 | and drag it down underneath our logo.
| | 03:21 | If you want to be really precise about
how far down underneath the logo, you can
| | 03:25 | change the view from the Active Camera
to the Front orthographic view, that way
| | 03:30 | you can definitely take out any
perspective and know that you're viewing this
|
|
|
